Attask Project Leadership Lessons From 40 PPM Experts

1
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Lessons from 40 PPM Experts on Making the Transition
from Project Management to Project Leadership
Sponsored by:
2
Foreword............................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................4
Our Project Leadership Experts...................................................5
Learning to Share................................................................................9
Nurturing Effective Communication............................................10
Leading from the Front................................................................12
Project Leadership, Not Project Management.............................13
Building Trust One Project at a Time...............................................14
The Keys to Success: Ownership, Transparency, and
Accountability.....................................................................................15
Nailing the Vision: Ensuring Project Success Through
Clarity....................................................................................................17
Business-focused Leadership........................................................18
Wild Dogs and PMs: Team Building for Successful Projects.............19
Preparation, Visibility, Empowerment..........................................20
Communicating with Empathy........................................................21
Going from Boss to Teammate..................................................22
The Deal is in the Details.................................................................24
Virtual Leadership.............................................................................25
How WIFM Rescued a Failing Project.........................................26
Winning Stakeholder Support....................................................27
Lightening the Weight of the World Through Trust.................28
Moving Projects Beyond Analysis Paralysis.............................29
Getting Down to Genuine Leadeship..........................................31
TABLE OF CONTENTS
No More Winging It: Devising a Plan to Save a Project........32
Trust and Respect: The Keys to Successful Projects...............33
Risking Your Popularity to Be a Strong Leader.........................34
Connecting Sustainability to the Enterprise..............................36
Committing to an Agile Transformation.....................................38
Encourage Autonomy, Collaboration, Exploration...............39
Rescuing Failing Projects............................................................40
Trust: The Key to Successful Leadership...................................42
Becoming the Linchpin for Your Project.......................................43
Implementing Situational Adapted Leadership.......................44
Changing an Organizations DNA.................................................46
Ensuring Success Through Face-to-Face
Communication................................................................................47
Leading Those Who Follow...........................................................48
Starting Projects with Love and Integrity..................................49
Cultural Competence: Effective Leadership in
Multicultural Environments...........................................................50
Project Leadership: The Main Ingredient in Getting
Troubled Projects Back on Track.................................................52
Delegating Your Way to Project Leadership.............................53
Consistent Project Management Without Excuses ...............54
Clear Communication Leads to Commitment.........................56
Principles of Performance-Based Project Management.......57
Love Your Project, and Your Team Will, Too.............................59
Meet AtTask...................................................................................60
3
FOREWORD
S
trong project leadership can make the diference between success and failure but is surprisingly elusive to many
businesses.
When it comes to project management, we tend to talk about the tacticalthe assignments, the tasks, the approvals, and
so on. But business is evolving, and many project teams are now being asked to lead change, instead of just timelines
and milestones. This evolution is accelerating and is driven by fresh thinking and business necessity supported by
advanced technologies that are highly accessible to a much broader range of contributors. Efectively managing work is
no longer just the role of a few specialists.
At AtTask, weve been both witnessing and enabling this trend for many years. Its the reason our strategic focus goes
beyond helping clients better manage projects. Our Enterprise Work Management solution allows them to view work in a
holistic wayproviding complete visibility across not just projects, but the entire lifecycle of work.
With visibility comes transparency, confidence, and ultimately, the power to lead. Decisions no longer need to be made
with out-of-date and incomplete information, resources can be truly optimized, and productivity materially improved.
We hope youll fnd the collective wisdom captured in this eBook to be a source of insight and best practice as you
continue your own journey to be a project leader.
ERIC MORGAN
AtTask CEO
4
Gartner predicted a massive sea change in the world of project managementa change that is forcing project managers into
a greater leadership role and requiring them to work closely with senior executives. With the generous support of AtTask, we
reached out to 40 top Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) professionals and asked them the following question:
Please share a remarkable leadership secret that had a major impact on an enterprise
project you have managed. Please tell the story and the results that you achieved.
We received a range of insightful answers that paint a picture of an industry in transition. The essays in this book roughly
break down into three categories. Several of the practitioners focused on the new relationship that project leaders need
to forge with senior management, how to understand their concerns and communicate with them in any way that
works. Many PPM experts wrote about leading change and getting teams to work together in new ways. Finally, many of
our experts wrote about specific leadership techniques that have helped them clear hurdles and remove obstacles.
Making the shift from project management to project leadership isnt easy, but the rewards can be signifcant. We hope
the collective wisdom and hard-learned lessons contained in these pages will inspire you and help you take your own
teams to a higher level.
All the best,
DAVID ROGELBERG
Editor
2014 Studio B Productions, Inc. I 62 Nassau Drive I Great Neck, NY 11021 I 516 360 2622 I www.studiob.com
INTRODUCTION
5
Cesar Abeid
PROjECT MANAGER
Glen B. Alleman
PRINCIPLE
Paul Cable
CONSULTANT PROjECT
MANAGER
Naomi Caietti
PROjECT MANAGER /
CONSULTANT
Geof Crane
DOCTORAL STUDENT,
PROFESSOR & COACh
Michiko Diby
CEO
Michel Dion
PROjECT MANAGER
Deanne Earle
COMPANY DIRECTOR &
PROjECT CONSULTANT
Chris Field
GLOBAL PMO MANAGER
jef Furman
PROjECT MANAGEMENT
INSTRUCTOR / PM BOOk AUThOR
OUR PROjECT LEADERShIP ExPERTS
Frank Grippo
DIRECTOR OF WEB SERvICES
Bob Hartman
CERTIFIED SCRUM TRAINER
Barry Hodge
PROjECT MANAGER
Jon Hyde
PROGRAMME MANAGER
Michael Kaplan
FOUNDER AND CEO
Robert Kelly
MANAGING PARTNER
Torsten Koerting
MANAGING PARTNER
Susanne Madsen
PROjECT LEADERShIP COACh
Rich Maltzman &
Dave Shirley
CO-FOUNDERS
Margaret Meloni
PRESIDENT
Jose Moro
CEO
Carlos j. Pampliega
ARChITECT & PROjECT
MANAGER
Rob Prinzo
PRESIDENT
Patrick Richard
SENIOR PROjECT /
PROGRAM MANAGER
Gregg D. Richie
INSTRUCTOR
Ivn Carlos Rivera
Gonzlez
SR. PROjECT MANAGER
Tres Roeder
PRESIDENT
Johanna Rothman
PRESIDENT
Peter Saddington
PRINCIPAL
Susan de Sousa
DIRECTOR
Pam Stanton
AUTHOR, SPEAKER &
CONSULTANT
Stephanie Stewart
DIRECTOR OF AGILE LEADERShIP
Jo Ann Sweeney
FOUNDER
Peter Taylor
OWNER / DIRECTOR
Tony Toglia
DIRECTOR, PROjECT
MANAGEMENT OFFICE
Ricardo Viana Vargas
DIRECTOR - PROjECT
MANAGEMENT
Cinda voegtli
CEO
Ed Wallington
PROjECT MANAGEMENT
ADvOCATE
Neil Walker
PROGRAM & PROjECT
PRACTITIONER
Todd C. Williams
PRESIDENT
6
Share a
remarkable
leadership
secret that had
a major impact
on an enterprise
project you have
managed.
Many enterprises may have good data,
but because they are working in silos . . .
these data are not available to end users
when they require it.
Ed Wallington
When it comes to organizational project
management, communications is a critical
component that, when executed properly,
links all project stakeholders to a common
set of goals and actions.
Michael Kaplan
Project leadership relates to people,
relationships, and behaviors.
Neil Walker
7
Leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group to follow, while
management is controlling resources in a group according to defned standards.
Peter Taylor
Swift trust occurs when a diverse group is brought together in a temporary
organization, such as a project ofce or virtual team created for an urgent project.
Naomi Caietti
I included stakeholders from all areas of the organization, not just IT and not just
the team members, which helped elevate stakeholder interest, bring transparency,
and break down silos, subsequently driving success.
Tony Toglia
8
I dont begin a project until I fully understand it. This means that I will sit with
project sponsors and not proceed until I have nailed down their vision.
Michiko Diby
What turned the project around was business-focused leadership by the sponsor
and PM as well as business-focused collaboration by the team to defne and pursue
what mattered most.
Cinda Voegtli
The role of the PM is frst and foremost to create an environment in which the PMs
team can be successfulnothing more, nothing less.
Chris Field
9
O
ne aspect that enables an enterprise to work efciently is the
ability to access up-to-date information in a timely manner.
Many enterprises may have good data, but because they are working
in silos (either because of structure or culture), these data are not
available to end users when they require it. There is a general recognition and
emphasis on creating a single source of the truth that staf and stakeholders
can access as appropriate. This requires an enterprise-wide change in working
practice and culturethe ability to share.
Enabling change on an enterprise scale requires buy-in from a wide range of
staf, from directors to operational delivery teams. The technical aspects of
this type of project are relatively well known, understood, and achievable; the
main efort is understanding and articulating the benefts and cultural change
required and making the change happen. The project manager (PM) in this
instance must not to only focus on the core project deliverablea system to
enable secure data storage and sharingbut also on the organizations buy-
in and implementation, which requires the ability to articulate the long-term
benefts (having a clear view on what success looks like) and using negotiation
and persuasion skills to make it happen at all levels of staf.
This type of project can easily lose steam without senior executive buy-in and
support. You will face a lot of push back when mobilizing cultural change, so
communication is key. A PM is conformable communicating at a project delivery
level, but this is not always the case when engaging senior executives. A diferent
tack is required, one focusing not on the technical detail but reinforcing why the
project is being done, what is required to efect change, and what the impact is
on the executives and their teams.
There is a need to personally tailor the benefts and impact to each executive
and explain it to them regularly. Go out on a limb, buy them a cofee, and have a
chat. Regular personal engagement is important and efective.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
TO WORK EFFICIENTLY, AN
ENTERPRISE MUST BE ABLE TO
ACCESS UP-TO-DATE INFORMA-
TION IN A TIMELY MANNER.
ENABLING CHANGE ON AN
ENTERPRISE SCALE REQUIRES
BUY-IN FROM A WIDE RANGE
OF STAFF.
THE PM MUST NOT ONLY
FOCUS ON THE CORE PROJECT
DELIVERABLE BUT ALSO ON THE
ORGANIZATIONS BUY-IN AND
IMPLEMENTATION.
Many enterprises
may have good data,
but because they are
working in silos . . .
these data are not
available to end users
when they require it.
ED WALLINGTON
Dr. Edward Wallington is an
advocate of professional
project management and
business analysis in the
geospatial and management
information sectors. Ed is
a versatile and enthusiastic
project manager who has
a deep interest and belief
in the transfer of project
management theory into
operational application. Ed is
a member of the Association
for Project Management (APM),
a committee member of the
APM Programme Management
Specialist Interest Group, and
actively contributes to the
project portfolio community.
LEARNING TO SHARE
Twitter I Website
Project Management
Advocate at
edwallington.com
10
W
hen it comes to organizational project management,
communications is a critical component that, when executed
properly, links all project stakeholders to a common set of goals and
actions. If project managers (PMs) do not efectively share these basic
components or team members dont understand them, expected outcomes are
jeopardized and project budgets become subject to unwanted risk.
A basic prerequisite for a smoothly functioning project team is efective
communications within the team and between the team and other project
stakeholders. One of the dangers of project management is the belief that all
communication links are operating efectively just because people are talking to one
another. One of the most common pitfalls of communication is the assumption that
because a message was sent, a message must have been received.
According to Project Management Institute, all aspects of project communications
can be challenging to projects, but the major areas of concern are:
The gap in comprehending the business benefts; and
The language used to communicate project information being frequently
ambiguous and favored with project management slang.
The responsibility for developing and nurturing real communication links belongs
to the PM. Understanding that the communication requirements of projects vary
greatly, the PM can focus on several areas to increase project communications:
Remain an efective communicator.
Be a communications expediter.
Encourage good communications across boundaries.
Leverage technology efectively.
Use a project website.
Run efective meetings.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
ENSURE COMMUNICATION
AMONG TEAM MEMBERS AND
BETWEEN THE TEAM AND
PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS.
CREATE AND USE A
COMMUNICATIONS
MANAGEMENT PLAN.
PLAN COMMUNICATION
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL
TO THE PROJECT.
When it comes to
organizational project
management,
communications is
a critical component
that, when executed
properly, links all
project stakeholders to
a common set of goals
and actions.
MICHAEL KAPLAN
Michael Kaplan is the founder
of SoftPMO, a New Yorkbased
consulting frm that specializes
in improving execution and
resource management. He is a
recognized leader in program
management and serves as an
advisor and mentor to senior
executives. In more than 20
years of practice, Michael
has worked with several of
the worlds most successful
organizations, including
Fortune 500 companies and
government agencies, helping
them to achieve the full intent
of their most urgent and
critically important initiatives.
NURTURING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Founder and CEO of
SoftPMO
Twitter I Website I Blog
b
11
The key to communications starts with planning and includes:
Planning communication both external and internal to the project;
Identifying meetings, reporting, and announcements that will
occur with all stakeholders; and
Creating a communications management plan and using it.
Communications management must include planning and delivering information
related to the project to all project stakeholders, which includes the processes
needed to handle timely and appropriate collection, generation, dissemination,
and storage of project information and the defnition of critical links among
people, ideas, and information required for success.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
ENSURE COMMUNICATION
AMONG TEAM MEMBERS AND
BETWEEN THE TEAM AND
PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS.
CREATE AND USE A
COMMUNICATIONS
MANAGEMENT PLAN.
PLAN COMMUNICATION
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL
TO THE PROJECT.
When it comes to
organizational project
management,
communications is
a critical component
that, when executed
properly, links all
project stakeholders to
a common set of goals
and actions.
MICHAEL KAPLAN
Michael Kaplan is the founder
of SoftPMO, a New Yorkbased
consulting frm that specializes
in improving execution and
resource management. He is a
recognized leader in program
management and serves as an
advisor and mentor to senior
executives. In more than 20
years of practice, Michael
has worked with several of
the worlds most successful
organizations, including
Fortune 500 companies and
government agencies, helping
them to achieve the full intent
of their most urgent and
critically important initiatives.
NURTURING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Founder and CEO of
SoftPMO
b
12
T
he perception of project managers (PMs) has changed
signifcantly over the past decade. I have witnessed a fundamental
shift in the sectors I operate inone that has seen a divergence from
the traditional PM role to encompass leadership qualities typically
reserved for executives.
Previously, PMs sat within an organizations command-and-control
management structure. This authoritarian approach was pervasive throughout
most sectors and typically limited fexibility, stifed innovation, and reduced
the ability to respond rapidly to issues. Marketplace changes over the past
decade have compelled senior executives to demand more from their people,
compelling their people to adapt swiftly to the onslaught of change through
extensive transformational change. PMs have been charged with unraveling the
plethora of business requirements to deliver projects successfully.
Senior executives set the strategic objectives of the organization, but they are
not experts on how the business runs at the operational level. The people
engaged at that level are. This disconnect is replicated at the project level, as
well. After all, no one person (or team) can do it all or know it all, and PMs are no
exception. A decade ago, I discovered that successful transformation projects
need efective actions by all of the people involved at every level. This certainly
requires greater levels of collaboration and infuence than hitherto seen, not only
within the delivery team implementing the change but across the organization
and even externally.
PMs face the challenge of gaining contributions and buy-in from people who dont
report directly to them. Therefore, project success often depends on ones ability
to infuence and persuade people at every level. This, in turn, requires leadership.
Project leadership relates to people, relationships, and behaviors. So, by leading
from the front, steering everyone toward a common objective, and engaging them
efectively en route, youll soon see enhanced project performance.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
COLLABORATION IS
ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESSFUL
TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS.
PROJECT SUCCESS OFTEN
DEPENDS ON YOUR ABILITY TO
INFLUENCE AND PERSUADE
PEOPLE AT EVERY LEVEL.
LEAD FROM THE FRONT.
Project leadership
relates to people,
relationships, and
behaviors.
NEIL WALKER
Neil Walker is a project
management professional,
consultant, and author. He has
more than 20 years of experience
leading and delivering technology-
enablement projects and business
transformation programs that
have aligned people, process,
and technology with business
strategy for blue-chip fnancial
services, professional services,
and Uk government organizations.
Neil has consulted across United
kingdom, Europe, Canada, and the
United States in specializations
such as program delivery
assurance, project turnaround,
strategic relationships, and
collaborative working.
LEADING FROM THE FRONT
Program & Project
Practitioner at Synatus
b
13
L
eadership has been described as the art of leading others to
deliberately create a result that wouldnt have happened otherwise.
This is something that happens every day in project management, yet
we call it just thatproject management rather than project leadership.
A confusing situation, but the diference can be thought of in the following
way: Leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group to follow, while
management is controlling resources in a group according to defned standards.
Using this defnition, then, here is a great example of how such leadership brought
about a signifcant change. We had a project in which, despite good plans and great
people, we experienced issues resulting from the fact that neither we as the supplier
organization nor the customer had addressed the issue of organizational change
management (OCM) in any serious way. Yet, this was a big program of change running
over a planned period of two and a half years and afecting hundreds of people.
Recognizing this gap and the risk to the overall project, the customer project
manager and I agreed that we needed to do something, and that something was
to lead the team in acquiring new skills while at the same time supporting the
project. We did look at the use of external OCM resources, but the price tag was
astonishingly high and hadnt been budgeted for, and so this idea was rejected.
Instead, we embarked on researching good OCM material, inviting external experts
who were willing to speak to the team in return for a good meal and some expenses
and running workshops with the team to explore the OCM challenge and develop a
plan for change management.
The result, although perhaps not the perfect OCM engagement, was twofold: The
team learned a new skillor at least had their awareness raised over the need
to take OCM seriouslyand the business change impact was relatively smooth
(certainly better than had we done nothing). had we just managed the situation, Im
not sure what the outcome would have been. The fact that we led the situation was
a positive thing.
KEY LESSONS
1
BE A PROJECT LEADER, NOT A
PROJECT MANAGER.
Leadership is setting
a new direction or
vision for a group
to follow, while
management is
controlling resources
in a group according
to defned standards.
PETER TAYLOR
Peter Taylor is the author of two
best-selling books on productive
laziness: The Lazy Winner and
The Lazy Project Manager. In
the past four years, he has
focused on writing and lecturing,
chalking up more than 200
presentations around the world
in more than 20 countries, and
has been described as perhaps
the most entertaining and
inspiring speaker in the project
management world today. Peter
also acts as an independent
consultant, working with some
of the major organizations in
the world, coaching executive
sponsors, project management
ofce leaders, and project
managers.
PROJECT LEADERSHIP, NOT PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Owner / Director at The
Lazy Project Manager Ltd
b
14
A
current trend is to highlight increased engagement of project
managers (PMs) to help drive strategic initiatives. Organizations
need to be more agile, customer focused, and innovative to stay
competitive in the global marketplace. A few years ago, I had the
opportunity to work as a PM and systems engineer on one of the
largest Medicaid data warehouse projects in the United States. The project was
complex; highly visible; and had multiple stakeholders, virtual teams, and remote
data centers of excellence. The U.S. Department of health Care Services (DhCS)
had an urgent need to implement and deliver a 21st century business intelligence
(BI) system. Stakeholder engagement was the key to producing results and positive
outcomes for this project.
What key leadership tenet did I use? Swift trust. PMs and program managers live
this every day: Agility is important for developing swift trust with teams, sponsors,
C-level executives, and stakeholders. Swift trust occurs when a diverse group is
brought together in a temporary organization, such as a project ofce or virtual
team created for an urgent project.
As a leader, you must earn trust quickly to infuence key stakeholders. Everyone
will start with little or some knowledge to gauge trust among the team. You must
demonstrate that you can be trusted and trustworthy. Team members must also
demonstrate their integrity and ability to be accountable, thus earning trust within
the group and from the leader. Why is this skill set important? According to recent
Project Management Institute research, building trust is a key trait that successful
PMs and program managers share.
Results and Outcomes
The BI solution went live on March 29, 2008, and that solution for DhCS is still
in production today. The project was designed to help more efciently manage
Californias $38 billion Medicaid program (known as Medi-Cal), save money for
California taxpayers, and improve healthcare services for millions of California
residents. It is the largest Medicaid data warehouse in the nation.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
AGILITY IS IMPORTANT FOR
DEVELOPING SWIFT TRUST WITH
TEAMS, SPONSORS, C-LEVEL
EXECUTIVES, AND STAKEHOLDERS.
YOU MUST EARN TRUST
QUICKLY TO INFLUENCE KEY
STAKEHOLDERS.
Swift trust occurs
when a diverse group
is brought together in
a temporary organiza-
tion, such as a project
ofce or virtual team
created for an urgent
project.
NAOMI CAIETTI
Naomi Caietti is founder and
CEO of TheGlassBreakers
and has been a consultant,
a published author, and a
recognized expert on personal
growth and leadership
development for project
managers for more than
10 years. She is a global
speaker and a featured
subject matter expert for the
ProjectManagement.com
community and was recently
interviewed by Samad Aidance
of NeuroFrontier on Leadership
for Women PMs. Naomi blogs for
LiquidPlanner and is the author
of a chapter in Peter Taylors
book, The Project Manager Who
Smiled.
BUILDING TRUST ONE PROJECT AT A TIME
Project Manager /
Consultant at the State
of California
b
15
M
y story goes back 18 months, when my team and I kicked of
an implementation for a full-blown enterprise-level healthcare
system. The project involved multipoint integration and drastic
changes to current business practices. There were signifcant risks
and issues involving the design and build decisions. We also struggled to bring
more ownership to the project team to facilitate the focus required for the work.
We needed to tackle these challenges before they afected the critical path of the
project. Therefore, I divided my approach into leveraging three related concepts:
ownership, transparency, and accountability.
First, we focused on facilitating ownership. We made things easy and provided
incentives. We concentrated project data into our project management
information system, AtTask, for one-stop shopping. I authorized giving
stakeholders direct access to AtTask, which provides one-click automated hTML
email to communicate project information. It also serves as a forum for project
discussion, providing context, nurturing engagement, and driving ownership.
Second, we focused on transparency. We built late task reports, and AtTask
sent them out to the team via automated email on a weekly schedule. I included
stakeholders from all areas of the organization, not just IT and not just the team
members, which helped elevate stakeholder interest, bring transparency, and
break down silos, subsequently driving success.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
FACILITATE OWNERSHIP OF
PROJECT ELEMENTS.
BUILD TRANSPARENCY INTO
THE PROCESS.
ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY.
I included stakeholders
from all areas of the
organization, not just
IT and not just the
team members, which
helped elevate
stakeholder interest,
bring transparency,
and break down silos,
subsequently driving
success.
TONY TOGLIA
Tony Toglia has been
involved in healthcare
technology, administration,
project management, and
leadership since 1987.
He currently manages a
project portfolio involving
computerized physician order
entry clinical, ancillary, and
business ofces at a growing
regional healthcare delivery
organization.
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS: OWNERSHIP, TRANSPARENCY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Director, Project
Management Ofce at
Rideout Health
Website
16
Finally, we focused on accountability. We used project scorecards
and dashboards to leverage the transparency into accountability. Our
biggest win was creating a custom issue category called decisions,
referring to decisions that were holding up design and build eforts.
The dashboard was grouped by senior leaders and displayed before all of them in
the boardroom. That transparency drove many executive decisions forward that
had been lagging to that point.
We saw a signifcant improvement in performance by leveraging a preexisting
tool in a way that facilitated stakeholder ownership, brought transparency to the
project, and displayed accountability. We brought focus and resolution to our
problem areas and got back on track.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
FACILITATE OWNERSHIP OF
PROJECT ELEMENTS.
BUILD TRANSPARENCY INTO
THE PROCESS.
ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY.
I included stakeholders
from all areas of the
organization, not just
IT and not just the
team members, which
helped elevate
stakeholder interest,
bring transparency,
and break down silos,
subsequently driving
success.
TONY TOGLIA
Tony Toglia has been
involved in healthcare
technology, administration,
project management, and
leadership since 1987.
He currently manages a
project portfolio involving
computerized physician order
entry clinical, ancillary, and
business ofces at a growing
regional healthcare delivery
organization.
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS: OWNERSHIP, TRANSPARENCY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Director, Project
Management Ofce at
Rideout Health
Website
17
T
he clarifer often gets beat up at the beginning, but the sacrifce is
almost a necessity to bring project success in the end.
I dont begin a project until I fully understand it. This means that
I will sit with project sponsors and not proceed until I have nailed down their
vision. First, I must be able to describe the purpose of the project in two or
three sentences. Second, I should be able to describe the plan for the project to
anyone in a way that makes sense.
I often get beat up (fguratively speaking) on the way to getting my clarity. My
favorite story was when I worked for an Army contractor at the Pentagon. I came
into an enterprise application rewrite midway through and realized that the
project team was dancing around the need to get clarity for fear of the reaction
of a certain colonel. Unclear projects really cause stress, and on my frst day, a
few of my people burst into tears. Something had to be done, so over the course
of the next month, I gradually developed the toolsproject charter; updated,
accurate project plan; risk logand talked to the right people to get myself
in front of the colonel and his team. Ill never forget that experience: Even the
lieutenant colonels were nervous when the day of the meeting actually arrived.
Through the research we had done, the team realized that we needed to focus
on a concept that had been lost in translation while people communicated
around each other. That was the frst thing on our frst slide. Our colonel saw it
and started to turn red. Then, he banged his fst on the table so that the whole
room jumped. I must have been staring at him wide eyed when he bellowed,
Why didnt we fgure this out sooner? Then began a calm, efective conversation
during which we questioned him on scope, and we left the meeting knowing that
we had the clarity we needed to be successful.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
DONT BEGIN A PROJECT UNTIL
YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND IT.
BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE THE
PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT IN
TWO OR THREE SENTENCES.
BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE THE PLAN
FOR THE PROJECT TO ANYONE
IN A WAY THAT MAKES SENSE.
I dont begin a project
until I fully understand
it. This means that I
will sit with project
sponsors and not
proceed until I have
nailed down their
vision.
MICHIKO DIBY
Michiko Diby is probably the
most no-nonsense, get-it-
done project manager (PM)
clients will ever come across.
A process guru, Michiko
is a project management
professional and Design for Six
Sigma certifed. She can engage
at all levels but has a low
tolerance for obfuscation. She
has led projects and programs
for Fannie Mae, T. Rowe Price,
and the U.S. Army, and is the
author of a popular project
management blog, Kosmothink.
Michiko has been featured
in the Project Management
Institutes global magazine, PM
Today, and holds a masters
degree in Confict Analysis and
Resolution.
NAILING THE VISION: ENSURING PROJECT SUCCESS THROUGH CLARITY
CEO of The SeaLight
Company
b
18
T
he news was grim. The nine-month IT project, designed to deliver
a wealth of new cost data to a group of critical business users,
was six months into the scheduleand still gathering requirements.
Although some technical work was underway, the team was
foundering in how to settle the scope and proceed. Meantime, millions of
dollars in additional proft per week from better product pricing decisions the
new data would enable were being lost. And fnishing the technical work on time
was looking like an impossible dream.
But with less than three months to go, this project recovered. It was actually
recovered on one specifc day, when the sponsor, project manager (PM), and
team gathered with two key business users and laid out the state of the project.
The PM and sponsor called the meeting, because they had realized that the
team meant wellthey were trying to make sure they identifed all the customer
requirements so that they could deliver a full tool for the pricing analysts. But
therein lay the problem: They were gathering all the requirements as abstract,
equally weighted items to satisfy rather than focusing on the driving business
goals and what mattered most for achieving them.
That day, the group explored what mattered most to the analysts ability to make
better pricing decisions and reap the maximum amount of extra proft. By the
afternoon, the group had identifed the fve most important metrics the pricing
analysts needed from the sales and customer support data. The technical team
had started reworking the remaining schedule to deliver just those fve metrics.
In the end, the project was delivered within two weeks of its original deadline.
This project was not saved by heroics or more resources or tighter schedule
management. What turned the project around was business-focused leadership
by the sponsor and PM as well as business-focused collaboration by the team to
defne and pursue what mattered most.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
THE SPONSOR, PM, AND TEAM
SHOULD GATHER WITH TWO
KEY BUSINESS USERS TO LAY
OUT THE STATE OF THE PROJECT.
DETERMINE WHAT MATTERS
MOST TO THE PROJECT AND ITS
USERS.
BUSINESS-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP
BY THE SPONSOR AND PM CAN
SAVE A PROJECT.
What turned the
project around was
business-focused
leadership by the
sponsor and PM as
well as business-
focused collaboration
by the team to defne
and pursue what
mattered most.
CINDA VOEGTLI
Cinda voegtli is founder and
CEO of ProjectConnections.
com, an online resources and
support service for more than
350,000 managers and team
members worldwide. She
has more than 20 years of
development and management
experience and advises
companies of all sizes on
practical project processes. Her
passions are achieving just
enough project management
that makes sense and gets
used; building business-savvy
cross-functional teams; and
helping project managers bring
together the skills and attitudes
that make them truly great
project leaders.
BUSINESS-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP
CEO of
ProjectConnections.com
b
19
W
eve all heard phrases like common sense aint that
common, the sum of the parts, and its people that
deliver projects, and few would disagree with the sentiment
behind them. Yet, it never ceases to amaze me how few people
take these wise words to heart when managing projects, no matter how large
or small.
Ive been fortunate enough to be involved with some really successful
projects as well as some remarkable failures, and the common denominator
among those considered successful is typically the people involved. My not
so secret secret refects this.
The role of the project manager (PM) is frst and foremost to create an
environment in which the PMs team can be successfulnothing more,
nothing less. Take, for example, team building. Everyone recognizes the
importance of an efective team, yet how many of us make provision for this
in our plans and take the time to understand and play to the key strengths of
the team?
I was involved with a truly remarkable project in which the upfront investment
in team building paid dividends. The Wild Dogs (a name that the team
chose for themselves to refect their determination to work efectively as a
team) were able to deliver truly remarkable results in the most challenging
of circumstances. Although the teams success can be attributed to several
factors, including collocation, a willingness to invest in the teams development,
and a real sense of passion, it was without a doubt the unconditional support
for fellow team members that allowed magic to happena lesson we can all
learn from the teams namesakes in the wilds of Africa.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
THE TEAM IS THE KEY TO
PROJECT SUCCESS.
THE PMS PRINCIPLE ROLE IS TO
CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT IN
WHICH THE TEAM CAN SUCCEED.
The role of the
PM is frst and
foremost to create
an environment in
which the PMs team
can be successful
nothing more,
nothing less.
CHRIS FIELD
Chris Field joined Piksel Inc.
in March 2014 to establish its
Global Project Management
Ofce (PMO). he is passionate
about project management
and is an active member of
the UK Board of the Project
Management Institute,
having served as president
from 2009 to 2011. Chris
founded and is responsible for
organizing Synergy, one of the
largest project management
conferences in the United
Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of
the British Computer Society
and Member of the Association
for Project Management.
WILD DOGS AND PMS: TEAM BUILDING FOR SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS
Global PMO Manager at
Piksel Inc.
Twitter I Website
20
W
e were hosting more than 2,000 websites on an antiquated
platform when the decision was made to migrate them to a
new environment. The websites had been built over several years
using diferent standards. We did not have the staf for such a
challenging task, so we hired a new team, including an ofshore group. The leads
were skilled but did not have large-scale project experience. The traditional
approach to project management was not going to succeed. So, how did we
accomplish this in nine months? Preparation, visibility, empowerment.
What was the process? We wrote a program that created each new website
and entered it into our tracking software. A project coordinator was assigned to
evaluate the new website, and updates to copy and design were implemented
as needed. The quality assurance (QA) team then received the website for
testing. Any issues found were logged and assigned to a development team.
With the onsite and ofshore teams working together, most websites were
tested and fxed in a day. When teams came across situations they didnt know
how to handle, the issues were logged and assigned to management. We had
weekly training sessions with the teams, teaching them how to handle issues
on their own. After a few months, the teams were functioning without upper
management.
To accomplish this much work in such a short time takes preparation. We
had supporting software, workfows, reports, and queues in place before
we hired any staf. A large-scale initiative also requires visibility. Our reports
tracked progress in real time and sent us alerts if a project were stalled. Most
importantly, a busy team needs to be empowered. Instead of micromanaging
routine issues, we gave our people the skills to make decisions.
So, how do you migrate 2,000 websites in nine months? Preparation, visibility,
empowerment.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
PREPARE FOR YOUR PROJECT IN
ADVANCE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
TRACK PROGRESS IN REAL TIME
TO ENSURE VISIBILITY.
GIVE PEOPLE THE SKILLS THEY
NEED TO MAKE DECISIONS.
A busy team needs
to be empowered.
Instead of
micromanaging
routine issues, we
gave our people the
skills to make
decisions.
FRANK GRIPPO
Frank Grippo graduated
from Purdue University
with a degree in Computer
Science. Starting his career
as a database and web
developer for Dialogic and
Healthstreet, he has since
been at LexisNexis for 13 years
and is currently the director
of Web Services. In LexisNexis
Web Visibility group, Frank is
creating websites to help law
frms market their businesses.
He is responsible for project
managers, developers, quality
assurance, and support stafs.
PREPARATION, VISIBILITY, EMPOWERMENT
Director of Web Services
at LexisNexis
21
L
et me start by admitting that I am not currently a project
manager; rather, Im writing from the perspective of an Agile
coach and trainer. This essay refects what I have seen while
working with clients over the past year.
The one remarkable leadership secret I have seen project managers
and Scrum Masters alike employ is the ability to communicate with senior
executives efectively. This sounds simple, but communicating with an
executive requires special skills that arent normally taught. It is not a type of
communication that happens naturally. It certainly requires impeccable logic,
confdence, and an ability to speak clearly, but it also requires more than the
obvious: It requires empathy and an understanding of the issues executives
face. This rarely considered idea is often the diference between the success
and failure of a conversation or idea.
The formula for communicating with empathy begins by framing the context
at the start of the conversation (In our organization . . . or On this project .
. .) and asking executives for their opinion (What do you see as our biggest
challenges? or What things do you see as risks?). having a conversation
about what worries the executive shows your empathy and respect for his or
her position. Trying to solve your problems without regard for the executives
problems will generally not produce positive results.
This leadership secret can move executives who were violently opposed to
an idea to support it after they understand how it would fx their problem,
too. If you have empathy for your executives and the things they are
concerned about, your ability to tie their problems to yours will allow you to
come up with solutions that solve both. Transform your conversations today
using this leadership technique.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
LEARN TO COMMUNICATE
EFFECTIVELY WITH EXECUTIVES.
FRAME THE CONTEXT AT THE
START OF THE CONVERSATION
AND ASK EXECUTIVES FOR THEIR
OPINION.
TIE YOUR PROBLEM TO THE
EXECUTIVES PROBLEM.
If you have empathy
for your executives
and the things they
are concerned about,
your ability to tie their
problems to yours will
allow you to come up
with solutions that
solve both.
BOB HARTMAN
Bob Hartman, known as
Agile Bob, has been involved
in the software industry
for more than 30 years.
He uses his experience to
help organizations, teams,
and individuals all around
the world. Bob is a popular
conference speaker, a certifed
scrum trainer and certifed
scrum coach, and is assistant
chairman of the Scrum Alliance
Board of Directors.
COMMUNICATING WITH EMPATHY
Certifed Scrum Trainer
and Coach at Agile For
All, LLC
b
22
I
once had to manage a team of electricians on a job site in the
Peruvian desert. I had never met those guys before, and they
only spoke Spanish (my Spanish is passable at best). In addition,
we had a tight deadline, leaving us only three days to complete
all the work. In those three days, I learned a lot about leadership, and the
secrets I uncovered stay with me to this day.
During our frst meeting, I had to explain what needed to be donethe
requirementsand why we only had three days to accomplish it all. At frst,
I started talking to them in English with the help of a translator. Because
I understand Spanish way better than I speak it, I quickly realized that my
translator was not conveying exactly what I needed to express. So, I decided
to switch to my frail Spanish.
As soon as I did, I noticed that the attitude of the team completely changed.
In their eyes, I went from being a Canadian who had arrived to tell them what
to do to a visitor who was speaking their language. Almost immediately, they
moved to a position of hosts and also realized that, though I was an engineer
project manager, there was something essential to this project (the Spanish
language) that they knew way better than I.
I went from boss, to someone who was in a position to learn from them.
Next, I explained how absolutely important their work was going to be to
make this project successful. We went over the requirements and started
working.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
TRY TO SPEAK YOUR TEAMS
LANGUAGE, EVEN IF YOU DONT
KNOW IT WELL.
DEMONSTRATE THAT YOU NEED
PEOPLE.
SHOW THAT YOURE READY TO
PITCH IN AND GET DIRTY.
Demonstrate that
you need people.
Doing so empowers
your team, humanizes
you as a manager, and
helps all stakeholders
own the project and
its success.
CESAR ABEID
Cesar Abeid is a certifed
project management
professional and has a B.E.Sc.
in Electrical Engineering from
the University of Western
Ontario. Cesar joined
Remontech in 2004, and
since then has successfully
implemented and managed
projects throughout Canada,
the United States, Brazil, and
Peru. He has a passion for
bringing project management
ideas to all. Cesar is also the
host of the weekly Project
Management for the Masses
podcast and the Construction
Industry podcast.
GOING FROM BOSS TO TEAMMATE
Project Manager at
Remontech, Inc.
b
23
Because our deadline was quickly approaching, I made another
decision that turned out to be important: I decided to join them
in their work. I suited up in personal protective equipment and
accompanied them into the feld, got dirty, and did some of the
work myself. The tasks were all completed within our timeframe, and I made
friends I am still in touch with to this day.
So, what were the leadership lessons here?
The answer is surprisingly simple. To lead, you need to try to speak your
teams language, even if you dont know it well enough. Demonstrate that you
need people. Doing so empowers your team, humanizes you as a manager,
and helps all stakeholders own the project and its success.
Finally, show that you are ready to do the work yourself, if needed. Show
that you are not afraid to roll up your sleeves and get dirty. This will earn
you respect and help you position yourself to compel all to do what needs
to be done.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
TRY TO SPEAK YOUR TEAMS
LANGUAGE, EVEN IF YOU DONT
KNOW IT WELL.
DEMONSTRATE THAT YOU NEED
PEOPLE.
SHOW THAT YOURE READY TO
PITCH IN AND GET DIRTY.
Demonstrate that
you need people.
Doing so empowers
your team, humanizes
you as a manager, and
helps all stakeholders
own the project and
its success.
CESAR ABEID
Cesar Abeid is a certifed
project management
professional and has a B.E.Sc.
in Electrical Engineering from
the University of Western
Ontario. Cesar joined
Remontech in 2004, and
since then has successfully
implemented and managed
projects throughout Canada,
the United States, Brazil, and
Peru. He has a passion for
bringing project management
ideas to all. Cesar is also the
host of the weekly Project
Management for the Masses
podcast and the Construction
Industry podcast.
GOING FROM BOSS TO TEAMMATE
Project Manager at
Remontech, Inc.
b
24
S
everal years ago, I moved into a senior program management role
at an Asian bank, managing a struggling steady-state enterprise
resource planning (ERP) installation. Luckily, I was friends with the
managing director of operations, who was able to give me the heads
up: Weve had other senior people in your position who focused on technical
competency and business acumen. The business tore them to shreds. Find
another approach.
Somewhat unnerved, I cautiously stepped into the role. There were all kinds of
functional problems on the ground. From my perspective, though, the single
biggest problem was a silo-based work culture. Everyone around me was smart
and talented, but those things clearly werent enough. To be able to make this
ERP system work, the organization as a whole needed to work as a single team.
Thats tough in a large, traditionally minded bank, and even tougher when
countless fngers are already pointing with hostile intent in every direction!
I started by cleaning up my own house. Using techniques Id learned from my
father (a schoolteacher), I set weekly customer-focused challenges for my people
that they had to solve in groups. For example, the risk management department
was regularly missing its morning risk reports. So: Find a solution that (1) lets us
notify them in person if the report will be late (before they go looking for it) and
(2) solve the late report problem. This had two efects: (1) We were fnally able
to get out in front of my customers issues across the enterprise and stop the
grumbling; and (2) my front-line customers went to their management (on their
own) to let them know they were seeing some interesting changes in my unit.
At this point, I had an opening to invite representatives from all of my customer
groups to the table to begin working on short-term capacity plans. The result?
high praise from my most demanding customer: Geof did in six months what
three vPs before him could not. he got those people to work together.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
AVOID A SILO-BASED WORK
CULTURE.
BEFORE IMPLEMENTING ANY
OTHER CHANGES, CLEAN UP
YOUR OWN HOUSE.
SET WEEKLY CUSTOMER-
FOCUSED CHALLENGES THAT
YOUR PEOPLE HAVE TO SOLVE
IN GROUPS.
Weve had other
senior people in your
position who focused
on technical competency
and business acumen.
The business tore
them to shreds. Find
another approach.
GEOFF CRANE
Geof Crane is a former senior
project portfolio manager
who has ties to some of the
worlds largest banks and
professional services frms. A
staunch believer in the value
of soft skills over hard skills, he
has returned to university to
pursue a doctorate in clinical
psychology. Unable to stay
away from the action, though,
Geof continues to help
aspiring executives organize
their project work and is an
adjunct professor of Project
Management at Durham
College in Ontario, Canada.
THE DEAL IS IN THE DETAILS
Doctoral Student,
Professor and Coach at
The Papercut Project
Manager
b
Twitter I Blog
25
T
he most successful project managers (PMs) possess leadership
abilities and employ them. As a military PM, it was a skill I learned
from watching the good leaders, and it was taught to us from the
beginning of our military journey. We were often required to brief
much higher-ranking ofcers about our projects.
Once, I managed the delivery, installation, data collection, and analysis of a
project to test solar photovoltaic panels as a back-up power source at remote
construction sites around the western Pacifc. This region included 14 sites,
stretching north and south from McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, to Adak, Alaska, as
well as east and west from California to japan and Subic Bay, Philippines. The U.S.
Department of Energy provided the solar systems, but the U.S. Navy SEABEES
installed, tested, and collected the data. Because this was a high-level government
project, it was high-visibility, watched by all levels of the chain of command.
The biggest challenge? Not only had no one on the project ever worked together
before, but we couldnt see each other. We conducted all communications over
ham radio gear. Today, we call this a virtual team, but in the early 1980s, that term
did not exist. So, how do you get a team of people who had never met face to face,
to get to know each other and work together? How do you conduct team-building
activities? Two words: virtual leadership.
I asked each team member to have a head-and-shoulders picture taken, then
send that picture to the 13 other sites. I implemented the policy that when they
were speaking to another member of the team, they bring their picture up so that
the speakers could see each others face. I also conducted sessions in which we
asked questions and discussed the issues and challenges we faced. Finally, I had
an open-door policy, where any person from the team could come to me with
any issue, and we would openly and freely discuss it. The outcome was that when
we all came together at a base near Los Angeles, California, the team met as if they
had been working side by side the entire time. They discussed family, hobbies, and
common interests, because they already knew so much about each other.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
WHEN TEAM MEMBERS WORK
VIRTUALLY, HAVING A PICTURE
OF EACH TEAM MEMBER FOSTERS
BETTER COMMUNICATION.
MAINTAIN AN OPEN-DOOR
POLICY TO ENCOURAGE
COMMUNICATION.
The most successful
project managers
possess leadership
abilities and employ
them.
GREGG D. RICHIE
Gregg D. Richie, PMP, CNP,
MCTS, is a full-time instructor
for Project Management
Academy. He also teaches for
the University of Washington
in the Project Management
Certifcate Program, has written
two books on Microsoft Project,
and is a 20 year veteran of
the U.S. Navy SEABEES. his
copyrighted signature saying
is, Goals are like underwear:
You have to change them once
in a while to feel better about
yourself.
VIRTUAL LEADERSHIP
Instructor at Project
Management Academy
b
26
F
or many years, I worked in a fast-paced brokerage frm in
Manhattan that had more than 1,000 developers working on
concurrent projects. Sometimes, they had to move in code changes
on the fy midday, while stocks were trading. And sometimes, these
changes had bugs that had to be eliminated immediately to prevent trading with
the wrong calculations. Sound chaotic?
To bring order to this cowboy environment, our chief information ofcer (CIO)
issued an edict that the developers must start using a new change management
system for all future software changes. This CIO was highly respected and
enjoyed all the forms of power one might fnd on the Project Management
Professional test: formal, punishment, referent, but the developers put up
strong resistance, and the cut-over failed for more than a year.
I was put in charge of converting the developers to the system, and I created
a hands-on class that I made all about the WIFM factor (Whats in It for Me?).
I showed the developers that they would beneft greatly from the system,
especially because of its autoback-out option. This feature meant that the
next time a developer would get a 3:00 a.m. call to back-out one of his or her
changes, that developer would no longer need to scramble around looking
for the old version of the code. If he or she had entered the change through
our system, it could be backed out automatically. All the person had to do was
have management key in B for back-out. The developers found this to be an
appealing argument, because it would save them hours of major stress on every
back-out.
The beneft?
The result was the IT department went from almost 0% to 100% compliance,
bringing a huge drop in the number of defects in our production-trading
environment.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
SHOW PEOPLE HOW THEY CAN
BENEFIT FROM YOUR PROJECT.
PEOPLE ARE MORE LIKELY TO
COMPLY WITH CHANGE WHEN
THEY UNDERSTAND THE
BENEFIT TO THEM PERSONALLY.
I was put in charge
of converting the
developers to the
system, and I created
a hands-on class that
I made all about the
WIFM factor (Whats
in It for Me?).
JEFF FURMAN
jef Furman, PMP, is a highly
experienced IT project
manager and project
management instructor. He
managed software projects
for Fortune 100 frms in the
New York City area for more
than 15 years and currently
teaches project management
for New York University and
for the U.S. Army at Fort Hood
and other bases around the
United States. The second
edition of his book, The Project
Management Answer Book
(Management Concepts Press),
will be out in August 2014.
HOW WIFM RESCUED A FAILING PROJECT
Project Management
Instructor / PM Book
Author at NYU
b
27
C
ommunicating projects is more than information fows among
team members: Its winning the trust and support of key
stakeholders outside the team.
For any project to succeed, we need to take our stakeholders on a journey. This
journey starts where those stakeholders are in terms of how much they know and
how they feel about our project. It ends when they are where we want them to be.
Before people act in the way we want, they have to feel positive about what we
are asking them to do. Before they feel positive, they need to know the essentials
that will change their attitudes from negative or neutral. Thus, communications
becomes an escalator that we take our stakeholders up. First, we make them
aware of our project; then, we build their understanding. Next, we win their
support, then involvement. Finally, we ask them to commit to our project.
just focusing on information fows gives people an intellectual concept of our
project. Theyre familiar but have no emotional investment to support us and
ensure that our project succeeds. Thats assuming they pay attention to the
information we circulate.
A few years ago, I supported four projects, together transforming a multitude
of in-country systems and processes to a single European-wide system. One
project manager (PM) got the concept of stakeholder journey, and together we
developed a simple communications plan with stakeholder route maps at its
heart. The others didnt. One said, No need for communications; well just tell
them and theyll do it. Another PM pulled out a door-stop document and said,
I already have a comms plan. It was just for show. The fourth project team had
great fun creating entertaining videos and posters but no plan.
Only the frst project won wide stakeholder support and delivered new systems
that people willingly used from day one.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
ENSURE THAT STAKEHOLDERS
BUY IN TO YOUR PROJECT.
WIN STAKEHOLDER SUPPORT,
THEN THEIR INVOLVEMENT.
ASK STAKEHOLDERS TO COMMIT
TO THE PROJECT.
Communicating
projects is more
than information
fows among team
members: Its winning
the trust and support
of key stakeholders
outside the team.
JO ANN SWEENEY
Jo Ann Sweeney is a
communications consultant
known for her results-
focused approach, rapport
and consensus building,
and clarifying complex
information. An FCIM and FIIC,
she specializes in working
with complex project teams
that have focused on the
technology solution rather
than its delivery. jo Ann
helps them get key people
committed so that the project
delivers the expected business
goals and wins recognition
for a great job. In addition,
she runs communications
training for project teams and
mentors leaders who have
communication responsibilities.
View more at: Communicating
Projects System
WINNING STAKEHOLDER SUPPORT
Founder of Sweeney
Communications Ltd
b
28
There is something wrong; the conversion does not balance. We

might have to call it of. These were the words my team member
blurted out as I approached. Unfortunately, not far behind me was
my boss, the chief information ofcer. My boss was trailing me from
desk to desk, because this was a large conversion involving most of our major
applications. If one failed, they all failed. We had been rehearsing this for months.
I calmly asked my team member to tell me what had happened. He showed me
the conversion report and the out-of-balance totals. On his face, I saw fatigue; at
that moment, I could see that he thought the weight of the entire project was on
his shoulders. I knew that he was smart and committed. He did not need me or
my boss to jump in and start reviewing reports and issuing orders. he needed
time to step back, take another look, tell me the nature of the situation, and ofer
a potential solution.
I looked at him and said, Okay, go take a quick break. Walk away from your
computer and your desk. After your break, come back and revisit the report. I will
check back with you in one hour. Then, I walked away.
My boss trailed me; in not-so-hushed tones, he barked, Take a break? Thats
how you solve a problem that could bring us to our knees? Take a break? I
looked at him and said, just trust us and give us an hour. In less than an hour,
my team member called me over to advise me that everything was in fact fne
and that in his nervousness and fatigue, he had transposed two numbers.
In this scenario, trust made all the diference. My boss grudgingly trusted me. I
had to trust myself and stand frm in my approach, I had to trust that my team
member could resolve the problem, and my team member had to trust in the
fact that I believed in him.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
DURING PROJECTS, TRUST
MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE.
TRUST YOURSELF, AND STAND
FIRM IN YOUR APPROACH.
On his face, I saw
fatigue; at that
moment, I could see
that he thought the
weight of the entire
project was on his
shoulders.
MARGARET MELONI
Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP, is
president of Meloni Coaching
Solutions, Inc., a company
devoted to helping clients
successfully navigate the
human side of the project
world. Her background in
IT project management and
project management ofce
leadership enables Margaret
to understand the challenges
clients face when managing
projects. A recipient of the
University of California,
Los Angeles, Extension
Distinguished Instructors
Award, her wish is to see
her students take on tough
projects and emerge strong
and sought-after project
managers.
LIGHTENING THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD THROUGH TRUST
President of Meloni
Coaching Solutions, Inc.
b
29
M
y boss called me into her ofce to assign the latest mandate
from corporate IT. The scope, she said, was for our business
unit to deliver a major upgrade of Windows to our 10,000 end users,
who were spread across several countries and dozens of sites. The
deadline was 12 months.
Now, lets talk about scope. The project had many unknowns. Before we could
deploy the upgrade, we would need to test all of our business applications for
compatibility. Because there was no authoritative inventory of applications, we
would need to gather that frst.
There was some buzz about a new tool that would deploy the upgrade auto-
magically over the network, but it was still in development at Microsoft. This
meant that we might have to confgure each of those 10,000 computers
manually, one at a time.
Budget, you ask? No one knew, yet, what would be funded by corporate IT versus
the local business units. Still, we would need to prepare a funding proposal
and get it approved in time to submit our deployment schedule to the chief
information ofcer within 30 days. The optics and politics of this situation were
massive that failure, as they say, was not an option.
I summoned an emergency workshop of representatives from our functions and
sites to build a plan for application inventory, testing, remediation, and end-user
deployment. I stood at the whiteboard with an eager smile, marker in hand.
Thats where it got ugly.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
DEVELOP A WHAT-IF
SCENARIO TO BEGIN THE
PLANNING PROCESS.
USE THE SCENARIO TO BUILD
A PROPOSAL AND DRIVE
CONSENSUS.
Technical people
make fact-based
decisions and commit
to plans grounded in
data. What I was
asking of them
violated their very
core.
PAM STANTON
Born and raised in New
Jersey and a graduate of Yale
University, Pam Stanton is an
author, speaker, coach, and
consultant who has 25 years of
experience in transformational
leadership. She specializes in
the impact of group dynamics
on project outcomesor,
as she puts it, The human
Part of the Gantt Chart. her
book, The Project Whisperer,
chronicles two decades
of insight into the human
element of successful projects.
MOVING PROJECTS BEYOND ANALYSIS PARALYSIS
Author, Speaker, and
Consultant at The Project
Whisperer
b
30
The pushback was immediate and ferce. Too many variables to
build a plan! how can we build a plan before we know whether the
deployment will be automated or manual? Our plan depends on
what version of Windows they will use. Sorry, but we cant possibly
build a plan until we have all these questions answered frst!
I was stumped. I mean, couldnt we just throw ideas onto the whiteboard and
work out some reasonable guesstimates? Thats when it hit me: Plan, plan, plan.
The people around the table were hung up on the word plan! To this room full
of highly analytical people, plan equaled commitment. Technical people make
fact-based decisions and commit to plans grounded in data. What I was asking of
them violated their very core.
Immediately, I dropped the word plan. Drawing a large timeline on the
whiteboard, I wrote, What if . . . ? When the exercise changed from building a
plan to developing a what-if scenario, the foodgates opened and ideas poured
out. We captured the what-ifs as assumptions that would need to be met for
this scenario to work. Fantastic! Thats all I ever wanted in the frst place.
By the end of the workshop, we had a great plan for how this project could work,
assuming that we could get certain commitments on resources, technology,
funding, etc. It wasnt a huge Gantt chart but rather a simple one-pager that
included graphical boxes and stars showing major activities and decision points.
I called it our Assumption-based Scenario and used it to build a proposal that
drove consensus with leadership and articulated what decisions had to be made
for us to proceed.
Ive reused this approach dozens of times since to move project teams out of
analysis paralysis. It works like a charm as long as I never utter that four-letter word.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
DEVELOP A WHAT-IF
SCENARIO TO BEGIN THE
PLANNING PROCESS.
USE THE SCENARIO TO BUILD
A PROPOSAL AND DRIVE
CONSENSUS.
Technical people
make fact-based
decisions and commit
to plans grounded in
data. What I was
asking of them
violated their very
core.
PAM STANTON
Born and raised in New
Jersey and a graduate of Yale
University, Pam Stanton is an
author, speaker, coach, and
consultant who has 25 years of
experience in transformational
leadership. She specializes in
the impact of group dynamics
on project outcomesor,
as she puts it, The human
Part of the Gantt Chart. her
book, The Project Whisperer,
chronicles two decades
of insight into the human
element of successful projects.
MOVING PROJECTS BEYOND ANALYSIS PARALYSIS
Author, Speaker, and
Consultant at The Project
Whisperer
b
31
W
hen I hear that Gartner is predicting a major shift in the
leadership role that project managers (PM) will take on over the
next few months, I get excited. Although I am a fan of technology and
systems, I have been tremendously frustrated by the productization
of project management. Cloud-based portfolio management, turnkey program
management ofce models, and magic methodologies have all been lauded as
the key to success. When it comes down to it, though, for this shift to become a
reality, PMs must get down to raw, genuine leadership, especially when working
with executives.
I had this revelation several years ago while working on two enterprise projects
whose teams consisted of multiple executives. On both engagements, I felt
confdent about the projects. I had executive support, frm budgets, and so on.
The problem was that progress was hard fought every step of the way. Decisions
werent being made, and the team was polluted with organizational politics. This
is when I learned that project leadership often required being uncomfortable.
When projects are running smooth, you are managing them, and the other
aspects of leadership (coaching, vision casting, etc.) are enjoyable, but calling
out executives in front of their peers and subordinates is not a comfortable
place to be. No methodology or tool was going to help me. I needed to dot my
is and cross my ts, then have a frank conversation with each of them about
expectations and issues afecting the project. Although it was not an accusatory
positionrather, collaboration on working togetherit was unnerving. In the
end, I was able to illustrate the issues and develop solutions to get the projects
moving forward. Most gratifying was the increased confdence in my leadership
abilities.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
STRIVE TO BE A LEADER, NOT
JUST A MANAGER.
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
OFTEN REQUIRES BEING
UNCOMFORTABLE.
When it comes down
to itPMs must get
down to raw, genuine
leadership, especially
when working with
executives.
ROBERT KELLY
Prior to starting KPS,
Robert Kelly successfully
led enterprise projects for
15 years, with a portfolio
that spans IT, marketing,
procurement, and sales
initiatives and project results
in more than 40 countries.
Robert is a sought-after
expert, with speaking and
print contributions to the
Project Management Institutes
PMNetwork, Fast Companys
30 Second MBA, and
Triangle Technical Recruiters
Association. In addition, Robert
is the co-founder of #PMChat,
a global community of project
managers sharing best
practices.
GETTING DOWN TO GENUINE LEADERSHIP
Managing Partner at
kelly Project Solutions, LLC
b
32
The program is going really well, probably because we have an

exceptional team working on it, said the chief executive ofcer (CEO).
I was more than a little confused to hear this. So, why do you need
me? I asked. Well, I just get this feeling I could be missing something important,
said the CEO. he wasnt wrong.
The Global Program was in fact in total disarray. There was no plan, no budget,
no requirementsin fact, no documentation at all. The three milestones were
all more than four months late, and no one had any idea what if any work had
been done on them. In fact, the only concrete documentation was the contracts
the business had signed with various clients promising delivery of a new
infrastructure with stringent penalty clauses for non-delivery.
Sadly, this situation is not unusual in my world. As a troubleshooter, I am invariably
brought in to turn around failing programs or to ensure that the impossible is
delivered. In such cases, leadership skills are paramount. But leadership doesnt
mean shouting and banging heads together. Well, not initially anyway.
In these projects, having the confdence to take a step back, calmly assess the
situation, and devise a plan of action demonstrates true leadership. After all,
the old adage of If you can keep you head while all others are losing theirs still
holds true, especially in such chaotic political situations.
And that is exactly what I did. The result? I was able to determine where the real
problems lay and get them fxed. I also renegotiated the client contracts with
zero penalties and ensured that the new delivery dates were met. Meanwhile,
the CEO and board learned a valuable lessonnamely, to bring in a project
management professional from the outset rather than trying to wing it.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
LEADERSHIP SKILLS ARE
PARAMOUNT WHEN TRYING
TO SAVE A FAILING PROJECT.
HAVE THE CONFIDENCE TO STEP
BACK, ASSESS THE SITUATION,
AND DEVISE A PLAN.
Meanwhile, the CEO
and board learned
a valuable lesson
namely, to bring in a
project management
professional from the
outset rather than
trying to wing it.
SUSAN DE SOUSA
Susan de Sousa is MyPMExpert
and runs the industry-leading
website of the same name. She
is internationally a recognized
expert in project management
theory, practice, and delivery,
having successfully managed
some of Europes highest-
profle programs. Many of
these deliveries were frsts
and had been deemed
impossible to deliver in the
designated timeframes and
budgets. Susan is also a
frequent media contributor
and sought-after conference
speaker as well as a published
author. She is in the process
of writing a book entitled How
to Deliver Impossible Projects
Successfully.
NO MORE WINGING IT: DEVISING A PLAN TO SAVE A PROJECT
Director at Interzone
Services Ltd
b
33
T
rust and recognition. These two actions transform a rag-tag group
of individuals into a team. Trust and recognition implicitly build
pride, boost morale, and increase performance. Evaluating your
project team by their capabilities, not their titles or tenure, breaks
down the artifcial walls established in organizations and creates energy that
cannot be surpassed.
About six years ago, when called into a client to rescue a project that was months
behind schedule and projected to exceed its budget by more than 100%, I was
challenged with a senior accounting manager who was the lead for one of the
three tracks on the projecta track responsible for integrating online payment
functionality from a fnancial institution. he was arrogant, cocky, and not a team
player. One member of his team was a junior analyst new to the organization.
During the project assessment interviews, the junior analystlets call her
Michelleshowed an amazing ability to organize information and understand
the complexities of third-party integration, and she had a calming demeanor that
is so critical in the high-stress environment of a project turnaround. After three
weeks of working with the senior manager to no avail, I turned to Michelle and
asked her to be the lead of that track. Her immediate response was that she was
unqualifed. After 20 minutes of her justifying her position and me explaining
why she was fully capable, I simply told her, Michelle, I have more confdence in
your capabilities than you do. I will check in on you daily to answer any questions,
but you do not need to change anything you are doing. You have the skills. This
concluded our meeting, and she apprehensively left my cubicle.
I did as I promised, checking in with her daily. After a week or so she agreed this
was unnecessary, and she came to me when she needed help. Needless to say,
she succeeded. The benefts, however, went far beyond her.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
TRUST AND RECOGNITION
TRANSFORM A GROUP OF
INDIVIDUALS INTO A TEAM.
CHOOSE THE PROPER PERSON
FOR THE JOB RATHER THAN THE
ONE WHO HAS SENIORITY.
TRUSTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE
GAINS YOU THE RESPECT OF
YOUR EXTENDED TEAM.
Evaluating your
project team by their
capabilities, not their
titles or tenure, breaks
down the artifcial
walls established in
organizations and
creates energy that
TODD C. WILLIAMS
Todd C. Williams is an expert
witness, executive consultant,
published author, blogger for
four sites, and president of
eCameron Inc. he has spent
the past 25 years rescuing
failed projects and teaching
companies how to turn their
vision into proft by creating
initiative-ready organizations. In
his book, Rescue the Problem
Project, A Complete Guide to
Identifying, Preventing, and
Recovering from Project Failure,
he defnes a people approach
to rescuing and preventing
project failure.
TRUST AND RESPECT: THE KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS
President of
eCameron, Inc.
b
34
Most people on a team know who is capable. It was no exception
with this crew. The other members watched Michelle with
excitement, because they knew she would excel. Executives
saw a new face in meetings and heard how she was reining in
the problems on the payment-processing track. The result was contagious
enthusiasm spreading within and beyond the team. The proper person was
doing the job rather than the one who had seniority.
Furthermore, it was transformational for the accounting manager, who became
more humble; contributed to the team; and, after four weeks of having Michelle
working as the lead, apologized for his arrogance and complemented the
decision to place Michelle at the helm. She had a better demeanor for working
with the service provider, and he was happier providing the systems knowledge
for the integration.
Trusting the right people, recognizing their skills, challenging them to question
their abilities, and placing them in successful situations gains the respect of your
extended teamyour superiors, subordinates, and your customer.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
TRUST AND RECOGNITION
TRANSFORM A GROUP OF
INDIVIDUALS INTO A TEAM.
CHOOSE THE PROPER PERSON
FOR THE JOB RATHER THAN THE
ONE WHO HAS SENIORITY.
TRUSTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE
GAINS YOU THE RESPECT OF
YOUR EXTENDED TEAM.
Evaluating your
project team by their
capabilities, not their
titles or tenure, breaks
down the artifcial
walls established in
organizations and
creates energy that
TODD C. WILLIAMS
Todd C. Williams is an expert
witness, executive consultant,
published author, blogger for
four sites, and president of
eCameron Inc. he has spent
the past 25 years rescuing
failed projects and teaching
companies how to turn their
vision into proft by creating
initiative-ready organizations. In
his book, Rescue the Problem
Project, A Complete Guide to
Identifying, Preventing, and
Recovering from Project Failure,
he defnes a people approach
to rescuing and preventing
project failure.
TRUST AND RESPECT: THE KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS
President of
eCameron, Inc.
b
35
I
was told the chief executive ofcer (CEO) would be difcult to
get along with. he was old school. he pushed too hard, had
unreasonable expectations, and was relentless. He smoked and he
growled. All of this I was told. A picture began to form in my head, and
it was not a pretty one. My project had to get through this CEO. he had his hands
on everything. Despite being at the top of a successful organization with more
than $1 billion in revenue, he still approved expense reports, training room layouts,
and other details. Without his explicit support, our project would die. As I prepared
for the meeting, I realized I had not packed my business cards. he always asked for
business cards, and it could make or break a meeting, I had been informed earlier
in the day. I quickly called my ofce and had a few cards overnighted to the hotel.
The next day, I walked into the CEOs ofce. I was wearing my best suit and
holding a fresh business card. We sat down, and I braced myself. What followed
surprised me. The CEO was cordial, asked questions, and was introspective. he
explained his challenges and his desire to be more hands of. he wanted the
team to do more and wanted our project, which was to improve organizational
project management maturity, to liberate him to focus more on the big picture.
Could it be that this difcult CEO was actually just a real person with hopes and
fears like the rest of us? Was it possible that he was doing what he felt was best
to lead the organization to the next level? I walked out of his ofce, well past our
scheduled fnish time, with a pat on the back and his strong support. The project
would live to see another day. I walked down the hallway and smiled to myself as I
was reminded that strong leadership sometimes means being unpopular. Others
may see it negatively as pushing and prodding, just as we dont like our personal
trainers when they ask for one more push-up, but those seemingly stubborn
demands from leaders encourage us to be our best.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
RISK UNPOPULARITY TO BE A
GOOD LEADER.
SEEMINGLY STUBBORN
DEMANDS FROM LEADERS
ENCOURAGE US TO BE OUR
BEST.
Strong leadership
sometimes means
being unpopular.
TRES ROEDER
Tres Roeder, PMP, is a
recognized global expert on
project management and
organizational change. he is
the author of two Amazon best
sellers, A Sixth Sense for Project
Management and Managing
Project Stakeholders. Tres has
been quoted by The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal,
MSN Money, and others. He
holds a B.A. in Economics from
the University of Illinois and an
MBA from the Kellogg Graduate
School of Management at
Northwestern University.
RISKING YOUR POPULARITY TO BE A STRONG LEADER
President of Roeder
Consulting
Twitter I Website
36
W
ith the increasing emphasis on sustainability in the C-Suite,
it becomes more and more necessary to be able to connect
that emphasis to the fundamental workings of the enterprise. The
question becomes, where is the best place to make that connection?
Projects are the lifeblood of any enterprise. Projects are where
the rubber meets the road, where ideas are made real. The project charter
therefore should be where the connection between the C-Suite and the
fundamental workings of the enterprise is made apparent and strong. But who is
responsible for insuring that the project charter includes an accurate portrayal of
the message being communicated from the C-Suite and what is that message?
Answering the second question is much easier than answering the frst. The
answer to the second question is that the message is part of the enterprises
mission/vision statement. As a PM, would you want to undertake a project that
was not specifcally aligned with one of your organizations
stated missions, say for example, sustainability? Maybe. But your answer may
also be: Sorry, I dont really think about that. Im too busy managing my project.
That answer is perfectly legitimate if the sustainability message has not been
broughtwith emphasisto the project managers. So where does the project
manager get his or her marching orders? Sometimes it comes from a project
sponsor. Other times it may come from program management.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
WITH AN INCREASING
EMPHASIS ON SUSTAINABILITY,
IT IS NECESSARY TO BE ABLE TO
CONNECT THAT EMPHASIS TO
THE FUNDAMENTAL WORKINGS
OF THE ENTERPRISE.
THE PROJECT CHARTER IS WHERE
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE
C-SUITE AND THE WORKINGS
OF THE ENTERPRISE IS MADE
APPARENT AND STRONG.
THE MESSAGE COMING
FROM ABOVE SHOULD BE
CONSISTENT AND DIRECTLY
CONNECTED FROM THE
ENTERPRISE MISSION/VISION
TO THE PROJECT CHARTER.
It takes true project leadership
(i.e. more than project
management) to communicate
a consistent message to the
project charters so that all of
them refect the enterprises
mission, vision, and values.
RICH MALTZMAN
AND DAVE SHIRLEY
Rich Maltzman, PMP, has been an
engineer since 1978 and a project
management supervisor since
1988. As a second, but intertwined
career, Rich has also focused on
consulting and teaching. Currently
Rich is a Director, Learning and
Professional Advancement, at the
Global Program Management
Ofce of a major telecom concern.
Dave Shirley, PMP, has been an
instructor and consultant, with
more than 30 years experience
in management and project
management, in the corporate,
public, and small business arenas.
EarthPM, LLC is the collaboration
of Rich Maltzman, PMP and Dave
Shirley, PMP.
CONNECTING SUSTAINABILITY TO THE ENTERPRISE
Co-Founders of
EarthPM, LLC
Twitter I Website
37
Where does the project sponsor or program manager get their
marching orders? Hopefully, there is portfolio management. That
could be either a formal function in larger organizations that may
have a portfolio management organization, to a smaller company
where one person makes the decision about which projects to
pursue. Whatever the structure, the message coming from above
should be consistent and directly connected from the enterprise mission/vision
to the project charter.
It takes true project leadership (i.e. more than project management) to
communicate a consistent message to the project charters so that all of them
refect the enterprises mission, vision, and values. And this leadership will pay of
in the short, medium, and long term.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
WITH AN INCREASING
EMPHASIS ON SUSTAINABILITY,
IT IS NECESSARY TO BE ABLE TO
CONNECT THAT EMPHASIS TO
THE FUNDAMENTAL WORKINGS
OF THE ENTERPRISE.
THE PROJECT CHARTER IS WHERE
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE
C-SUITE AND THE WORKINGS
OF THE ENTERPRISE IS MADE
APPARENT AND STRONG.
RICH MALTZMAN
AND DAVE SHIRLEY
Rich Maltzman, PMP, has been an
engineer since 1978 and a project
management supervisor since
1988. As a second, but intertwined
career, Rich has also focused on
consulting and teaching. Currently
Rich is a Director, Learning and
Professional Advancement, at the
Global Program Management
Ofce of a major telecom concern.
Dave Shirley, PMP, has been an
instructor and consultant, with
more than 30 years experience
in management and project
management, in the corporate,
public, and small business arenas.
EarthPM, LLC is the collaboration
of Rich Maltzman, PMP and Dave
Shirley, PMP.
CONNECTING SUSTAINABILITY TO THE ENTERPRISE
Co-Founders of
EarthPM, LLC
THE MESSAGE COMING
FROM ABOVE SHOULD BE
CONSISTENT AND DIRECTLY
CONNECTED FROM THE
ENTERPRISE MISSION/VISION
TO THE PROJECT CHARTER.
It takes true project leadership
(i.e. more than project
management) to communicate
a consistent message to the
project charters so that all of
them refect the enterprises
mission, vision, and values.
Twitter I Website
38
I
ts no secret that Agile is the most remarkable of all leadership
secrets. Yes, thats right: Agile! I learned this frst hand in 2011, when
I led the Agile transformation of Valpak based on nothing more than
a gut feeling that there must be a better way. I quickly went from the
rules of the Project Management Body of knowledge and the faws of Waterfall
to the values and principles of The Agile Manifesto and the magic of self-
organizing teams. It was probably the most enlightening moment of my career,
and over the next couple of years, I had the pleasure of inspiring that same truth
across the entire organization.
As a result of our Agile transformation, we are not only achieving greater results
and delivering more value more quickly than ever before, but we are also
enjoying our work, our teams, and our company more than ever before. Other
outcomes of our Agile transformation include:
Our Agile transformation case study contributing to a book by Charles G.
Cobb, entitled Managed Agile Development: Making Agile Work for Your
Business; and
Becoming the community poster child for all things Agile. We organize The
Tampa Bay Agile Meetup group and have grown membership by almost
300% this past year. In addition, we regularly give Agile tours of our process to
companies looking to go Agile and ofer advice and mentorship upon request.
Unlike a project, our Agile journey will never be complete, but we continue to
make progress each and every day. Our progress is evident in the ways in which
we are truly being Agile, not just doing Agile. In such a short time, my company
went from being behind the times to being a role model for Agile transformation.
I couldnt be more proud of how far we have come.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
UNLIKE A PROJECT, UNDERTAKING
AN AGILE TRANSFORMATION
WILL NEVER BE COMPLETE.
TO MAKE PROGRESS,
ORGANIZATIONS MUST BE
AGILE, NOT JUST DO AGILE.
I quickly went from
the rules of the Project
Management Body of
Knowledge and the
faws of Waterfall to
the values and princi-
ples of The Agile Mani-
festo and the magic of
self-organizing teams.
STEPHANIE STEWART
Stephanie Stewart is director
of Agile Leadership at Valpak,
a Cox Target Media company.
Stephanie is a career project
leader who has more than 16
years in the feld, including past
positions with AT&T Business
and IBM Global Services, and
has maintained the project
management professional
certifcation since early in her
career. More recently, she
earned the PMI-Agile Certifed
Practitioner credential. Her
academic credentials include
a B.S. in Marketing from the
University of South Florida
and an MBA in International
Business from the University of
Bristol in England.
COMMITTING TO AN AGILE TRANSFORMATION
Director of Agile
Leadership at Cox
Target Media
b
39
M
y leadership secret? Tell people the results you want to achieve.
Remove their impediments. Create an environment that helps
the team see where they are and provides feedback. keep other
people out of their hair. Make sure they dont multitask. Encourage
the team to collaborate and explore together. They will make magic. Of course,
this is not easy. You can tell people the results you want to achieve by creating a
project charter together. Doing so helps a team jell.
Sometimes, the biggest impediment Ive removed was to get a senior developer
a new desk, so his back didnt hurt. Sometimes, I had to take on the facilities
department and tell them that, Yes, we need to remove those cube walls. I know
you think its strange, but the people have agreed to it. You have the e mails. The
testers and developers want to work together.
Sometimes, the challenges are at the senior management level. You can have
everyone busy, or you can have projects out the door. If you have everyone busy,
you wont make this quarters revenue. If you have projects out the door, you will.
You do not want busyness, you want throughput. That will allow us to ship and
to recognize revenue. That one was a tough sell.
In contrast, when a team works together, collaborating and exploring to
complete the product with me facilitating them, as needed, we are all in fow.
We maintain a visual board of work in progress and whats complete, so that
everyone can see status.
Project management is not project control. We dont need hierarchy. We need
to know the results were supposed to deliver. We need the autonomy to deliver
those results so that we can collaborate and explore together. It sounds simple,
but its magic when it happens.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
TELL PEOPLE THE RESULTS
YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE, AND
REMOVE IMPEDIMENTS.
CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT
THAT HELPS THE TEAM SEE
WHERE THEY ARE AND
PROVIDES FEEDBACK.
ENCOURAGE THE TEAM TO
COLLABORATE AND EXPLORE
TOGETHER.
Project management
is not project control.
We dont need
hierarchy. We need to
know the results were
supposed to deliver.
JOHANNA ROTHMAN
Johanna Rothman, known
as the Pragmatic Manager,
provides frank advice to
clients tough problems. She
helps organizational leaders
recognize potential risks, seize
opportunities, and remove
impediments. Johanna is the
author of several books and
more than 200 articles. She
writes two blogs on her website,
jrothman.com, as well as a blog
on createadaptablelife.com.
ENCOURAGE AUTONOMY, COLLABORATION, EXPLORATION
President of Rothman
Consulting Group, Inc.
b
40
W
hen you read about project management methodology, you will
see the ideal scenario: A project is initiated, planned, executed,
and closed. A successful project will be well defned, well planned,
have the proper resources, and be successfully managed. At the end
of a project, lessons learned can be used to improve the approach for future,
similar projects and create better project managers (PMs).
however, life as a PM is not always as simple. Sometimes, project gets into
trouble. It can then be abandoned or rescued. Rescuing a project is also diferent
from managing issues. There will always be issues on a project, but a project that
needs to be rescued has reached the point of there is no hope.
Rescue project management is a specialty of its own in project management, just
like the emergency room is a specialty for medical doctors. Rescuing projects
requires a unique mindset from the PM and the project team. It is diferent from
the usual project management. If you have to work on a project that needs to be
rescued, here are some key considerations to remember.
Identify Key Success Factors
It is essential to identify the key success factors of the project and manage
them closely. It will help to gain some key successes and ensure that they dont
become points of failure.
Review Project Plans
It is also important to review the project plans and challenge the assumptions in
it. A project plan will have dependencies that are based on best practices or just
past experience. Often, the dependencies were just added to make the Gantt
chart look good.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
IDENTIFY KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
FOR THE PROJECT.
REVIEW PROJECT PLANS
AND CHALLENGE THEIR
ASSUMPTIONS.
BE CREATIVE, AND FOCUS ON
ACTION, MAKING DECISIONS
QUICKLY.
It is essential to
identify the key
success factors of the
project and manage
them closely.
MICHEL DION
Michel Dion is a certifed
public accountant and project
in Canada. he also holds
the internal auditor and risk
management assurance
certifcations. Michel has
managed various projects in
the past decade, including
audits, fnancial analysis,
application development, data
analysis, business transitions,
and special initiatives. he is
also the author and developer
of the blog Project-Aria, a
website featuring thoughts
on project management,
leadership, and productivity.
RESCUING FAILING PROJECTS
Project Manager at
Project-Aria
Twitter I Blog
b
41
Be Creative
If you step back from the original plan, you can often be creative and
fnd new ways of doing things. here are two examples. A project
team on a difcult project used some innovative data-analysis
methods to complete a research task faster. Another team was able to reduce
the time required for an analytical report by breaking it into smaller parts and
performing the quality assurance activities on each part more quickly.
Focus on Action
Finally, you have to focus on action and make decisions quickly. The project is
already in trouble, so a leader must be able to decidenot recklessly, but there
is no time for indecision and confusion. As such, it is important to focus on
results, and perfection.
Sometimes, the project may just need to be abandoned, but rescuing projects
can often be surprising. The experience can be stressful, even discouraging,
but if the project team are focused on fnding solutions and achieving results,
such rescues can be rewarding. It is also a powerful way of improve project
management skills.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
IDENTIFY KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
FOR THE PROJECT.
REVIEW PROJECT PLANS
AND CHALLENGE THEIR
ASSUMPTIONS.
BE CREATIVE, AND FOCUS ON
ACTION, MAKING DECISIONS
QUICKLY.
It is essential to
identify the key
success factors of the
project and manage
them closely.
MICHEL DION
Michel Dion is a certifed
public accountant and project
in Canada. he also holds
the internal auditor and risk
management assurance
certifcations. Michel has
managed various projects in
the past decade, including
audits, fnancial analysis,
application development, data
analysis, business transitions,
and special initiatives. he is
also the author and developer
of the blog Project-Aria, a
website featuring thoughts
on project management,
leadership, and productivity.
RESCUING FAILING PROJECTS
Project Manager at
Project-Aria
b
Twitter I Blog
42
T
rust is a key leadership skill. Without trust, you could fnd obstacles
throughout your projects and discover that teams will not
optimally perform for you within the execution phase of your project.
Gaining trust from your senior stakeholders ensures that your project
has the appropriate level of support from the business and provides you with a
level of authorization for any political issues.
A few years ago, I accepted an assignment with a large UK supermarket chain.
The project was already in fight, and the project team was already established,
but the project manager had departed. When I arrived, the thoughts from the
main stakeholders were that this project was doomed and would continue to
fail. I needed to gain trust from the stakeholders to continue with the project
and from the team to improve their morale and organize them to complete the
project.
I found that two members of the development team were leading the others,
so these were the people with whom I needed to establish a mutual trust. I set
about by asking questions and listening to their opinions, guiding them into
making decisions that I could follow through with. This gave the team a sense of
empowerment, as the actions of their decisions delivered results. I made it feel as
if the decision had come from the team, which provided self-belief, pride, and a
sense that they mattered. This, in turn, encouraged them to deliver. In addition, it
secured the trust of management, as they could start to see the project delivering
the business benefts.
Without obtaining the trust of the team, we would not have been able to deliver.
The updated project plan set smaller deliverables; therefore, I was quickly able to
gain the trust of the project sponsor and senior stakeholders by delivering results.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
GAIN THE TRUST OF SENIOR
STAKEHOLDERS BY DELIVERING
RESULTS.
GAIN THE TRUST OF TEAM
MEMBERS GIVING THEM A STAKE
IN THE PROJECTS SUCCESS.
Gaining trust from
your senior stakeholders
ensures that your
project has the
appropriate level of
support from the
business and provides
you with a level of
authorization for any
political issues.
PAUL CABLE
Paul Cable is a certifed project
management professional and
risk management professional
in addition to a Prince2
Practitioner. Working in the
IT industry for more than 15
years in a leadership role, Paul
has a wealth of experience
infuencing stakeholders from
all levels in diferent industries,
most recently in banking,
telecommunications, oil, and
retail. He has worked with a
variety of clients, such as Bank
of Tokyo, Daiwa Capital Markets,
hSBC, Waitrose, Orange, Ricoh,
and Statoil.
TRUST: THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP
Consultant Project
Manager at Empachal
Solutions Limited
b
43
A
s a project manager, it is important that you are the linchpin of
the project. As with any leadership role, the project manager
is the frst person people should turn to for clear direction and
guidance.
When on a project, those who stand to beneft from the project may be
tempted to bypass the project manager and go straight to the person
performing the task. Doing so can have many negative impacts on the project,
from delays to distracting project team members through causing confusion.
While working on a project for one of the worlds largest pharmaceutical
companies, I stopped such a bypass from happening. I held daily 10 minute
project meetings frst thing every morning with all of the project team leaders.
It was a chance to have an open discussion on the work that was planned for
the day and discuss any challenges carried over from the previous day. The
goal was to know whether we were still on track or if something was going to
knock us of course. The ultimate goal, however, was to make sure everyone
knew what job they had to do. This clarity meant that if someone approached
a team member about a change, he or she would send that person straight
to me, because the team member knew that questions would be asked in the
team meeting on the next day.
With the project benefciaries, I held a weekly meeting either face-to-face or
by phone. I could discuss progress and verify that the requirements hadnt
changed. By being open, transparent, and listening to the stakeholders, I was
able to fnd out about changes early. I could then gather the information and
come back with sensible estimates on the impact of the change. With the
rapport that I had built up, they trusted what I was saying. I was the project
linchpin.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
BE THE LINCHPIN OF YOUR
PROJECT.
MAINTAIN GOOD COMMUNICATION
BOTH WITHIN THE PROJECT
TEAM AND WITH PROJECT
STAKEHOLDERS.
ENCOURAGE TEAM MEMBERS
TO FUNNEL ALL QUESTIONS
THROUGH YOU.
By being the go-to
personthe linchpin
of the project, the
project manager can
provide leadership,
limit confusion, and
drive the project
forward.
BARRY HODGE
A Prince2 Practitioner with a
degree in Project Management,
Barry Hodge has more than 15
years of experience managing
projects in many industries.
he has successfully delivered
projects for organizations in
defense, pharmaceuticals,
logistics, retail, housing, and
travel. With a passion for
project management, Barry
publishes a daily blog on
ProjectNewsToday.com and is
active on all the major social
media channels.
BECOMING THE LINCHPIN FOR YOUR PROJECT
Project Manager at
Bromford
b
44
W
e discovered a company in the construction sector with a
large number of projects that did not use any methodology
or have a Project Management Ofce. Because of this, their
technicians had many problems executing projects. We
suggested implementing a PMO and standardizing the PMI methodology,
so that the probability of completing projects on time would increase, within
budget and to customer satisfaction.
At frst, the companys management was skeptical about changing their way
of working and we had to develop an implementation strategy based on
leadership. Like in any change in organizational culture, we focused on the
people involved, starting with senior management.
The aim was to implement the PMO in a sequential and evolutionary manner,
with strategic features aligned with the focus of the company.
In this sequential process we used diferent leadership styles and directive
behavior to help people develop and become self-sufcient. This would help
the PMO to manage the portfolio of projects on its own. (Situational Adapted
Leadership)
Directing: As leaders of change, we guided each person in his/her
particular assignment. We established reference models based on PMBoK
to fnd inspiration, and we empowered the technical organization in the
methodology.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
DEVELOP AN IMPLEMENTATION
STRATEGY BASED ON
LEADERSHIP.
USE DIRECTIVE BEHAVIOR TO
HELP PEOPLE DEVELOP AND
BECOME SELF-SUFFICIENT.
USING THE SAL METHOD
(SITUATIONAL ADAPTED
LEADERSHIP) MAKES IT EASIER
FOR WORK TO BE ADAPTED.
CARLOS J. PAMPLIEGA
Carlos j. Pampliega is an
Architect and PMP at
Salinero Pampliega Project
Management. Carlos
professional aim is to optimize
the clients assets. Carlos is
results-oriented and adds
value to the company with each
project he is involved in.
The expertise he has
gained as an architect has
facilitated communication
skills, leadership, and
team development, which
complement the project
manager profle demanded
by businesses. Carlos has
demonstrated his technical
knowledge and management
skills in his commitment to the
successful completion of all
types of projects.
IMPLEMENTING SITUATIONAL ADAPTED LEADERSHIP
Architect & Project
Manager
As leaders of change,
we guided each person
in his/her particular
assignment.
b
45
Coaching: We let each one do their work according to their
position in the organization, allowing mistakes along the way. This
made it easier for each technician to identify emotionally with the
proposal.
Supporting: When the methodology was standardized within the company,
managers refected the new culture in the organization.
Delegating: Once the whole company operated according to the new
methodology, processes were executed automatically, without the need of
our leadership. Technicians who took responsibility for the PMO within the
company matured professionally.
The directors of the company began to see the PMO as a strategic asset for
the company optimizing its own resources. It became a tool for managing
the portfolio of projects, choosing those that were better aligned with the
companys goals.
The SAL method (Situational Adapted Leadership) made it easier for our
work as leaders of the PMO to be adapted, especially with the directors of
the company, who took part in the whole process.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
DEVELOP AN IMPLEMENTATION
STRATEGY BASED ON
LEADERSHIP.
USE DIRECTIVE BEHAVIOR TO
HELP PEOPLE DEVELOP AND
BECOME SELF-SUFFICIENT.
USING THE SAL METHOD
(SITUATIONAL ADAPTED
LEADERSHIP) MAKES IT EASIER
FOR WORK TO BE ADAPTED.
As leaders of change,
we guided each person
in his/her particular
assignment.
IMPLEMENTING SITUATIONAL ADAPTED LEADERSHIP
Architect & Project
Manager
CARLOS J. PAMPLIEGA
Carlos j. Pampliega is an
Architect and PMP at
Salinero Pampliega Project
Management. Carlos
professional aim is to optimize
the clients assets. Carlos is
results-oriented and adds
value to the company with each
project he is involved in.
The expertise he has
gained as an architect has
facilitated communication
skills, leadership, and
team development, which
complement the project
manager profle demanded
by businesses. Carlos has
demonstrated his technical
knowledge and management
skills in his commitment to the
successful completion of all
types of projects.
b
46
T
he infuence and efect the C-suite and senior executive or
management roles have on project outcomes is evidenced in
the gap between the strategy they formulate and its day-to-day
implementation. This gap can only begin to close when senior
executives have more skin in the game and project managers (PMs) do more
than manage the processes in and around the project.
When it comes to strategy implementation, however, the C-suite still retains a
certain level of ignorance and navet of projects and their delivery. The rise of
the role of PM and rightly or wrongly a focus on process can limit the value from
projects and put the delivery of business-relevant outcomes at risk.
I work with clients around the world delivering a variety of technology-based
initiatives. Relationships, belief, and trust are critical. By taking a more business
outcomebased leadership role, Im better placed to give decision makers
information from the project perspective thats relevant for the business. They in
turn can then see the connections between the project and strategic direction and
make decisions that ensure that the organization continues to do the right thing.
Sometimes the initiative continues, sometimes it changes course, and sometimes it
stops. In one instance, the project was put on hold until other activities were aligned,
and some weeks later my team returned on site. Senior management involved at
the client and supplier were clear about what needed to be resolved and did not
incur additional costs.
In summary, senior executives make decisions about projects based on:
Ongoing business relevance;
Continued alignment with strategic drivers;
Soundness of business beneft versus cost ratio; and
Creation of overall business value.
PMs who increase their leadership deliver projects that are better aligned to
strategy and help change an organizations DNA.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
RELATIONSHIPS, BELIEF, AND
TRUST ARE CRITICAL.
PMS WHO INCREASE THEIR
LEADERSHIP DELIVER PROJECTS
THAT ARE BETTER ALIGNED TO
STRATEGY.
By taking a more
business outcome
based leadership role,
Im better placed to
give decision makers
information from the
project perspective
thats relevant for the
business.
DEANNE EARLE
Deanne Earle is director
of Unlike Before Ltd and a
project consultant specializing
in project delivery. She is a
founding member of The
Glass Breakers global womens
network; a published author;
and a sought-after expert on
project delivery, management,
change, and leadership.
Focused on the intersection
of projects and business
operations, Deanne challenges
the DNA of a companys
leadership to achieve greater
business value from technology
initiatives.
CHANGING AN ORGANIZATIONS DNA
Company Director and
Project Consultant at
Unlike Before Ltd
b
47
A
fter working on a project with a very distant sponsor, I
vowed never to let that happen again. Thats my secret. On a
subsequent business-transformation project, I began by agreeing
with the sponsor up front that we would meet face to face for one
hour each week. That time ensured that:
We remained aligned on the project vision;
We stayed abreast of progress, risks, and issues;
I received additional insight as the sponsor shared details of informal
discussions regarding the project held at a senior level;
We were able to discuss delicate points and work up a strategy together
before moving forward; and
I knew that the sponsor supported whatever I presented to the project team
and wider stakeholders, so I was rarely out on a limb.
This approach built trust and rapport between us, a virtuous cycle that brought
additional tangible benefts:
I gained a deep understanding of my sponsors hopes, dreams, and fears for
the project, which led to healthy risk and opportunity management.
Project progress was accelerated, because were able to make pragmatic
decisions, factoring in cost and resource constraints, and a deep shared
knowledge of the work.
That small changeregular quality time with the sponsormade all the
diference in terms of delivering a highly sensitive business-transformation
project on budget and within timescales.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
BUILD TRUST AND RAPPORT
THROUGH REGULAR, FACE-
TO-FACE COMMUNICATION
WITH PROJECT SPONSORS.
COMMUNICATION HELPS YOU
STAY ALIGNED WITH SPONSOR
AND STAKEHOLDER NEEDS FOR
THE PROJECT.
That small change
regular quality time
with the sponsor
made all the diference
in terms of delivering
a highly sensitive busi-
ness-transformation
project on budget and
within timescales.
JON HYDE
Jon Hyde is a program manager
specializing in public-sector
transformation. Over the past
decade, Jon has managed a
diverse range of programs,
including enterprise website
design, the introduction of new
waste and recycling services,
and strategic commissioning
of built environment services.
Jon also has an interest in
portfolio management and
has successfully enabled
improved control and
prioritization of programs. he
is an active member of the
project portfolio management
community and blogs at
www.publicsectorpm.com.
ENSURING SUCCESS THROUGH FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION
Programme Manager at
Cheltenham Borough
Council
b
48
Y
ou can lead only those who allow you to lead them. Some think
that you can force people to follow your lead. That is possible only
if you are a dictator, and we all know how dictatorships endnot in
success and not happily. Whether we admit it or not, the real work
is performed by project team members, not project managers (PMs). PMs are
merely intermediaries between an organizations leadership and goals and those
who realize those goals.
Between mid-1997 and 2000, I was a PM for the Y2k remediation eforts of a
business unit in a large, integrated manufacturing organization. The business unit
had facilities around the world. A survey yielded 200,000 items to remediate or
replace, which confrmed that we had a sizable project on our hands.
The organization directed that all of its business units be Y2k compliant by july 1,
1999, with management being informed of progress and major issues every three
months. To help the process along, a database of items and approved fxes was set
up and made available within business units and across the whole organization.
Soon enough, it became clear that we had a changing situation with a hard
deadline. Large organizations evolve constantly; new equipment is procured and
entire facilities are acquired or sold. What was originally a project that involved
existing operations now included procurement and teams from newly acquired
facilities. We even had to fast-track remediation of facilities that were being
divested. All the Y2k work that had been accomplished became a value add to the
new owners.
By late 2008, the organization announced a merger that would yield a $40 billion-per-
year entity. The organization we were absorbing had to be brought in line with the
existing one without a change to the existing deadline. Eventually, every business unit
completed Y2K remediation between April 1, 1999, and July 1, 1999. This success was
achieved through the teams hard work and its willingness to be lead.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
PMS ARE MERELY
INTERMEDIARIES BETWEEN AN
ORGANIZATIONS LEADERSHIP
AND GOALS AND THOSE WHO
REALIZE THOSE GOALS.
THE REAL WORK IS PERFORMED
BY PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS,
NOT PMS.
You can lead only
those who allow you
to lead them.
PATRICK RICHARD
Patrick Richard is an experienced
project and program manager
in a wide variety of industries,
including process, pulp
and paper, manufacturing,
pharmaceuticals, biotechnology,
food and beverages, point-of-
sale systems, and pharmacy
systems. he also has extensive
experience reporting progress
and discussing challenges with
senior management teams as
well as leading implementation
teams in fulflling the goals of
the project and organization.
Patricks specialties are team
leadership and recovery of
troubled projects.
LEADING THOSE WHO FOLLOW
Senior Project / Program
Manager at PRGPPM
b
49
M
ost leadership secrets are already out there. With a quick
Google search, youll fnd the best ways to lead organizations,
infuence others, and improve every facet of your practice and
profession. Ive read many of these books myself.
At the end of the day, however, remember one thing: When all is said and done,
people rarely, if ever, remember what you did. What they will remember is how
you made them feel.
Im talking about love. Love is what Im trying to practice more and more.
Start with love of oneself. If you love yourself, you respect yourself. If you respect
yourself, youll be more willing to say the tough things. Stick up for others. Speak
out if you fnd things that are unethical or unfair. Youll be paid for the honesty
and integrity you provide.
Dont leave your integrity at the door. Dont leave love out of the equation.
When you have self-love, you can love others. People build the best software and
services in the world. People. Not technology. If you can show love on a personal
level to your clients, I promise you that youll never regret a business decision
even when theyre walking you out the door.
Whenever I work with executive management, I begin our engagements by talking
about love. This discussion sets the tone of the engagement. It starts everything
on a solid foundation. Love has the power to change hearts, change culture, and
even build better products. Ive seen it. I believe it.
Serve your clients by showing them the love you have for yourself, your integrity,
and willingness to serve. Thats a profession worth doing.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
REMEMBER THAT AFTER THE
PROJECT IS DONE, PEOPLE
REMEMBER NOT WHAT YOU
DID BUT HOW YOU MADE THEM
FEEL.
DONT LEAVE YOUR INTEGRITY
AT THE DOOR.
Serve your clients by
showing them the love
you have for yourself,
your integrity, and
willingness to serve.
Thats a profession
worth doing.
PETER SADDINGTON
Peter Saddington is a published
author, organizational counselor
and certified scrum trainer. he
holds an M.A. in Counseling, an
M.A. in Education, and a Master's
of Divinity in Theology. Peter
loves ramen and soda pop.
STARTING PROJECTS WITH LOVE AND INTEGRITY
Principal at Action &
Infuence, Inc.
b
50
A
s the world becomes smaller, our networks expand. An
increasingly globalized economy has led to more multicultural
work environments and opportunities for international cooperation.
This globalization has a unique advantage: Global teams with varying
professional perspectives bring fresh ideas and a competitive edge to projects
and teams.
Realizing these benefts requires a sound level of cultural competence. Each
of us carries our own value and belief systems, and embedded within each of
us are our own attitudes toward professional interaction and norms. Efective
leadership in multicultural environments demands clear communication from
the outset. We must establish rapport and a level of understanding among
team members to develop the necessary communicative environment to move
forward and ensure success.
Know Your Audience
As the adage goes, know your audience. Understanding the people you work
with and the location you work in is crucial to efective leadership and the well
being of your project. Being part of a team of people from varying cultural or
professional backgrounds assumes diferent perspectives ranging from how we
view time to how we interact with hierarchy.
The United Nations Ofce for Project Services (UNOPS) works in countries
around the worldfrom Afghanistan to haitito deliver sustainable and efective
implementation of project management, infrastructure, and procurement services.
We succeed because we tailor our services to the development environment. We
employ not only experts who have technical experience but also experienced
leaders who are able to understand local needs and cultural norms as well as
actively engage with authorities and communities.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
WORK TOWARD CULTURAL
COMPETENCE.
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN
MULTICULTURAL ENVIRON-
MENTS DEMANDS CLEAR
COMMUNICATION FROM THE
OUTSET.
ASK YOURSELF WHOM ARE YOU
TALKING TO AND WHAT ARE
THE PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS
THIS PERSON NEEDS.
Success is a key
aspect of your project,
but creating a mean-
ingful and positive
diference is possible
only when we engage
with and respect those
around us.
RICARDO VIANA
VARGAS
Ricardo Viana Vargas is a
project, portfolio, and risk
management expert and
the author of 11 books. He
was chairman of the Project
Management Institute in 2009
and is currently the director of
the Ofce for Project Services
for the United Nations.
Responsible for managing
more than 300 project
managers, his focus is on the
improvement of humanitarian,
infrastructure, and peace-
building projects in more than
120 countries, including Haiti,
Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iraq,
and South Sudan.
CULTURAL COMPETENCE: EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN MULTICULTURAL
ENVIRONMENTS
Director - Project
Management at United
Nations Ofce for Project
Services (UNOPS)
b
51
Ask yourself this: Who are you talking to, and what are the drivers
this person needs in the professional realm? Managing cultural
dimensions necessitates that you, the project leader, question your
own innate assumptions. You dont need to negate your core beliefs,
but you should be fexible to practices diferent from your own. Establish open
lines of communication from the outset. Speaking openly with your team helps
everyone understand diferent behaviors and values. This way, you can set
realistic guidelines based on mutual respect and individual capacities.
Make Relationship Building a Priority
Encouraging input from team members, local managers, and community leaders
helps earn respect and ensure project success. Across cultures, information is
processed diferently, and business practices operate at varying speeds. Thus, it
is imperative that you adapt your leadership and communication styles to local
contexts. Respect for diferences among the project team members means
happier, more motivated individuals. My team at UNOPS is made up of people
from 14 countries. Its success and that of other teams owes itself to building
transparent relationships to ensure that our projectsmore than 1,000 around
the worldcreate a lasting impact while promoting local ownership and capacity
development.
Cultural competence will help project leaders maximize employee
productivity, efciency, and sustainable results. A motivated team will also
attract new talent and earn the respect of stakeholders across the value
chain. At the end of the day, success is a key aspect of your project, but
creating a meaningful and positive diference is possible only when we
engage with and respect those around us.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
WORK TOWARD CULTURAL
COMPETENCE.
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN
MULTICULTURAL ENVIRON-
MENTS DEMANDS CLEAR
COMMUNICATION FROM THE
OUTSET.
ASK YOURSELF WHOM ARE YOU
TALKING TO AND WHAT ARE
THE PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS
THIS PERSON NEEDS.
Success is a key
aspect of your project,
but creating a mean-
ingful and positive
diference is possible
only when we engage
with and respect those
around us.
RICARDO VIANA
VARGAS
Ricardo Viana Vargas is a
project, portfolio, and risk
management expert and
the author of 11 books. He
was chairman of the Project
Management Institute in 2009
and is currently the director of
the Office for Project Services
for the United Nations.
Responsible for managing
more than 300 project
managers, his focus is on the
improvement of humanitarian,
infrastructure, and peace-
building projects in more than
120 countries, including Haiti,
Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iraq,
and South Sudan.
CULTURAL COMPETENCE: EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN MULTICULTURAL
ENVIRONMENTS
Director - Project
Management at United
Nations Ofce for Project
Services (UNOPS)
b
52
W
hen diagnosing project issues, it is important to step back
from the situation and look objectively at the project as a
whole. Often, the people involved in the day-to-day project eforts
become so engrossed with project status, metrics, and management
concerns that they overlook addressing the root cause of a problem. A
problem may be obvious, but the solution, such as increasing top management
commitment or changing unrealistic expectations, is not.
just as in the movies, the hero or heroine is aware that disaster is going to occur
and must fgure out how to stop it. The same is true for a project manager (PM).
The PM may see the danger ahead but doesnt know how to stop it. Who in the
organization has the ability and authority to make the required change? Is it one
person, two, an executive, a vendor, or a team composed of all of them? More
than likely it is the team. To avert disaster and change the projects direction,
you need the buy-in of multiple people and departments. It is the PMs job to
bring the warning signs to the attention of stakeholders, propose a solution, and
facilitate its implementation.
Making signifcant changes to get an on-going project back on track is tricky
and relies more on the ability to change and infuence human behavior than
the ability to update a project dashboard or conduct a ft-gap session. It also
requires project leadership, not just project management. To further complicate
things, that leadership may need to come from someone who is not in a position
of authority but who needs to convince the people in positions of authority that
change is required for project success. Mastery of such leadership skills comes
from building a foundation of trust and credibility with project stakeholders and
knowing how to navigate an organizational structure to implement solutions to
complex problems.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
WHEN DIAGNOSING ISSUES,
STEP BACK FROM THE SITUA-
TION AND LOOK OBJECTIVELY
AT THE PROJECT AS A WHOLE.
DETERMINE WHO IN THE
ORGANIZATION HAS THE
AUTHORITY TO MAKE CHANGES.
MASTERY OF SUCH LEADERSHIP
SKILLS COMES FROM BUILDING
A FOUNDATION OF TRUST AND
CREDIBILITY WITH PROJECT
STAKEHOLDERS.
Making signifcant
changes to get an
on-going project back
on track is tricky and
relies on . . . project
leadership, not just
project management.
ROB PRINZO
Rob Prinzo is the founder
and CEO of The Prinzo Group
and senior consultant with
the frm. Rob works with
organizations to develop
and implement strategic
plans, conducts workshops
on the implementation of
technology, and is the author
of No Wishing Required: The
Business Case for Project
Assurance; Project Soup:
Recipes for Managing to
Success; and Collaborative
Intervention: how to Identify,
Assess and Intervene in
Troubled Technology and
Transformation Projects.
PROJECT LEADERSHIP: THE MAIN INGREDIENT IN GETTING TROUBLED
PROJECTS BACK ON TRACK
President of The Prinzo
Group
b
53
S
everal years ago, I was, like many other project managers (PMs),
working hard on a project that seemed to be growing increasingly
complex, with tighter and tighter deadlines. I was stressed and
overworked, and there wasnt much time left for being proactive,
thinking ahead, or building quality relationships with team members or
stakeholders. I spent most of my time dealing with urgent issues.
One-to-one coaching helped me change this vicious circle. I realized that to grow
and get better results for myself, my team, and my project, I needed to delegate
more. I recognized that being a good PM didnt mean that I had to know it all
and do it all by myself. I had to get better at asking for help and support and at
trusting and empowering others. As a frst step, I got a project administrator
on board to help with lower-level task tracking and administrative work. It was
essential work, but it wasnt essential that I did it.
Delegating more freed me up to spend time with the team and key stakeholders,
listening to their ideas and concerns and looking at what we could do better. I
started focusing more on picturing the end state of the project and proactively
reducing the risks associated with getting there. I also began to put much more
emphasis on empowering people and trusting others. Previously, I had spent
up to 75% of my time managing tasks and as little as 25% on people. When I
started to delegate, my focus shifted. I spent more time ensuring that high-level
and strategic tasks were executed smoothly and on enabling the team to thrive
and do their best work. I didnt know it at the time, but I was slowly taking on a
leadership role, where it wasnt my specifc skills or knowledge that defned me
but my ability to lead and motivate others. The frst step was to delegate more.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
LEARN TO DELEGATE.
SPEND MORE TIME ENSURING
THAT HIGH-LEVEL TASKS GET
DONE AND ENABLING TEAM
MEMBERS TO DO THEIR BEST.
WORK TO BE A PROJECT LEADER,
NOT JUST A PROJECT MANAGER.
I recognized that
being a good PM
didnt mean that I had
to know it all and do it
all by myself.
SUSANNE MADSEN
Susanne Madsen is an
international project leadership
coach, trainer, and consultant
and the author of The Project
Management Coaching
Workbook. She has more
than 17 years of experience
managing and rolling out large
change programs of up to
$30 million for organizations
such as Standard Bank,
Citigroup, and jPMorgan
Chase. Susanne is a Prince2
and MSP Practitioner as
well as a qualifed corporate
and executive coach. She
specializes in helping project
managers excel by improving
their leadership skills.
DELEGATING YOUR WAY TO PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Project Leadership
Coach
b
54
S
ome projects do fail or go through crisis. Project crisis are extreme
situations involving a lot of stress. This requires specifc actions and
skills, especially by the ones leading a team through a project crisis.
Going through project crisis and turn around requires strong and consistent
leadership.
During my career I have met many leaders and seen diferent leadership
principles and reactions by people working with those leaders. Based on this
experience I derived eight principals of consistent project management that are
critical to manage a project through a crisis.
Passion to Deliver
As a project manager, but also as a member of a project team, it is essential that
your passion to deliver can be perceived and noticed. If you are showing that
you do not believe in the outcome how should others believe in it?
Empathy
Your dedication, your empathy, your responsiveness for and towards others,
addressing individuals fears and needs, are crucial for constructive team
dynamics. Empathy is the true connection with people and the appropriate way
of addressing the needs of people in any situation in any culture.
Focus on the Core
Do not get disrupted and diluted by anything that might distract you from the core.
Get into the Details
In crisis and decision-making it is essential to immerse into the details. Make sure
the details have been explained to you and try to understand them.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
AS A PM, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT
YOUR PASSION TO DELIVER CAN
BE PERCEIVED AND NOTICED.
A PM HAS TO BE VISIBLE,
PERSONALLY INVOLVED AND
PROACTIVE IN PERSONAL
COMMUNICATION WITH THE
TEAM, VENDORS, AND
PARTNERS.
BE AWARE OF YOUR VALUE
SYSTEM AND ACT ACCORDINGLY.
You are the role
model for others.
Lead and act the same
way you expect from
others.
TORSTEN KOERTING
Torsten Koerting is a
paragliding and outdoor
enthusiast, project
management expert,
entrepreneur, strategic thinker,
visionary, and management
consultant. He is often engaged
as a speaker at conferences
and is the author of various
reference books. As business
leader of projectyzer Gmbh he
specializes in how to introduce
innovative, creative strategy-
development processes at
frms as well as bringing failing
projects back onto a course to
success. In his 20+ year career
he has worked for global Blue-
Chip companies in Europe,
USA, and Australia. He currently
lives with his family in Germany.
CONSISTENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT WITHOUT EXCUSES
Managing Partner at
projectyzer Gmbh
b
55
Sense, Refect, Act
Sharpen your senses, be alert, observant, and awake, watch out. Each
small indicator might be a hint for something important and essential.
Be Visible
A PM has to be visible, personally involved and proactive in personal
communication with the team, vendors, and partners. A project manager who
sits behind his desk in his ofce and does not personally communicate with
people is not able to sense, understand, and perceive the environment he is in,
nor to refect and act appropriately.
Walk the Talk
Let your words follow actions. Do not announce something that you do not stick
to. Do not make any empty promises. This is essential for a trusting relationship
between you, your project team and project participants.
Dont Let Your Leadership Style Erode
You are the role model for others. Lead and act the same way you expect from
others. Be on time, avoid the use of your blackberry or iPhone during meetings,
be consistent in your message and actions.
Integrity
Be aware of your value system and act accordingly.
Project management does not consist only of methods and toolsthey are a
means to an end and provide structure. The combination of methods and tools,
technical and functional skills, as well as social skills and personal mindset is what
makes successful project management.
Find your way, obey the pillars above, and the success will follow.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
AS A PM, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT
YOUR PASSION TO DELIVER CAN
BE PERCEIVED AND NOTICED.
You are the role
model for others.
Lead and act the same
way you expect from
others.
TORSTEN KOERTING
Torsten Koerting is a
paragliding and outdoor
enthusiast, project
management expert,
entrepreneur, strategic thinker,
visionary, and management
consultant. He is often engaged
as a speaker at conferences
and is the author of various
reference books. As business
leader of projectyzer Gmbh he
specializes in how to introduce
innovative, creative strategy-
development processes at
frms as well as bringing failing
projects back onto a course to
success. In his 20+ year career
he has worked for global Blue-
Chip companies in Europe,
USA, and Australia. He currently
lives with his family in Germany.
CONSISTENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT WITHOUT EXCUSES
Managing Partner at
projectyzer Gmbh
b
2
3
A PM HAS TO BE VISIBLE,
PERSONALLY INVOLVED AND
PROACTIVE IN PERSONAL
COMMUNICATION WITH THE
TEAM, VENDORS, AND
PARTNERS.
BE AWARE OF YOUR VALUE
SYSTEM AND ACT ACCORDINGLY.
56
S
ome years ago I had the opportunity to lead a project for a
government agency in Mxico. In December, my boss came to me
with a document explaining the need for a prospect. At that time I
developed applications for PDAs. After studying all possible sides of
the problem, I prepared a document explaining that, to meet all customer needs,
we should undertake a project that could last up to twelve months.
The project was to be implemented in diferent locations with two alternatives:
The frst was to work in teams that would communicate remotely. In the 90s,
this was difcult because there were no social networks and partial use of
email.
The other option was to move one team to another city, which would include
the expenses of travel and lodging.
When the project began we had just three months left of the original estimated
duration and there was internal resistance to our participation.
The approach was to frst have clear communication with the team, identify natural
leaders and get their buy-in. The support of these leaders helped to get the teams
commitment.
Its important for this kind of project to get customer involvement at the decision-
making level and to get involvement and support on project management
decisions from the performing organization.
The lesson is that, given the challenges of todays projects, it is increasingly
necessary to lead with the participation of all team members.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
GET CUSTOMER INVOLVEMENT
AT THE DECISION MAKING
LEVEL.
GET THE INVOLVEMENT AND
SUPPORT OF THE PERFORMING
ORGANIZATION ON PROJECT
MANAGEMENT DECISIONS.
Have clear
communication
with the team,
identify natural
leaders and get
their buy-in.
IVN CARLOS
RIVERA GONZLEZ
Ivn Carlos Rivera Gonzlez,
PMP, is a computer engineer
with wide experience as a
business processes manager.
His managerial background
was developed through
directive positions in service
companies. Ivn is innovative,
solutions oriented, and has
teamwork coordination abilities.
Ivn uses globally recognized
methodologies and is specialized
in the management of high-
impact projects. Ivn has been a
project management professional
(PMP) since 2006. He has an
Information Technology Master
degree and in 2010 received his
advanced project management
certifcation from Stanford
University.
CLEAR COMMUNICATION LEADS TO COMMITMENT
Sr. Project Manager
b
57
P
roject success is based on fve Immutable Principles; fve practices
that implement these principles, and fve tailored processes that
produce the needed outcomes of the project.
The Five Immutable Principles of Performance-Based Project Management are
designed to meet both the defnitions and requirement that they be efective.
The principles are stated as questions that need to be answered by the project
manager:
1. Where are we going?
2. How are we going to get there?
3. Do we have everything we need?
4. What impediments will we encounter, and how will we remove them?
5. How are we going to measure our progress?
These questions can be applied to projects just as they can be applied to any
endeavor from fying to Mars to taking a family vacation. If we use the dictionary
defnition of immutable, not subject or susceptible to change or variation in form
or quality or nature, we can apply these principles to any project.
The practices, which are derived from the Five Immutable Principles, function to
keep the project on track:
1. Identify needed capabilities.
2. Defne a requirements baseline.
3. Develop a performance measurement baseline.
4. Execute the performance measurement baseline.
5. Apply continuous risk management.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
PMS MUST ENSURE THEY KNOW:
WHERE THEY ARE GOING, HOW
THEY WILL GET THERE, WHETHER
THEY HAVE EVERYTHING THEY
WILL NEED, WHAT IMPEDIMENTS
THEY WILL ENCOUNTER, AND
HOW THEY ARE GOING TO
MEASURE PROGRESS.
USE THE FIVE PRACTICES TO
KEEP THE PROJECT ON TRACK.
PROJECT GOVERNANCE IS A
CRITICAL FACTOR IN THE
SUCCESS OF ALL PROJECTS.
Project governance
is concerned with fve
areas: business success,
customer impact,
team impact, project
efciency, and prepa-
ration for the future; it
is a critical factor in the
success of all projects.
GLEN B. ALLEMAN
Glen B. Alleman is a program
performance management leader
in space, defense, and power
systems. His specialties are:
software intensive development
for space, defense, energy,
industrial, and commercial
domains, program planning
and controls, risk management,
integrated master plan /
integrated master schedule (IMP/
IMS), and program performance
management.
PRINCIPLES OF PERFORMANCE-BASED PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Principle at Niwot
Ridge LLC
Twitter I Website
58
Project governance is concerned with fve areas: business success,
customer impact, team impact, project efciency, and preparation for
the future; it is a critical factor in the success of all projects. While the
principles and practices are necessary for project success, we also
need processes to guide us in how to apply them.
1. Organize the project.
2. Plan, schedule, and budget the work.
3. Capture actual costs of the project.
4. Assess cost and schedule outcomes against technical performance.
5. Record all changes to cost, schedule, and technical requirements.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
PMS MUST ENSURE THEY KNOW:
WHERE THEY ARE GOING, HOW
THEY WILL GET THERE, WHETHER
THEY HAVE EVERYTHING THEY
WILL NEED, WHAT IMPEDIMENTS
THEY WILL ENCOUNTER, AND
HOW THEY ARE GOING TO
MEASURE PROGRESS.
USE THE FIVE PRACTICES TO
KEEP THE PROJECT ON TRACK.
PROJECT GOVERNANCE IS A
CRITICAL FACTOR IN THE
SUCCESS OF ALL PROJECTS.
Project governance
is concerned with fve
areas: business success,
customer impact,
team impact, project
efciency, and prepa-
ration for the future; it
is a critical factor in the
success of all projects.
GLEN B. ALLEMAN
Glen B. Alleman is a program
performance management leader
in space, defense, and power
systems. His specialties are:
software intensive development
for space, defense, energy,
industrial, and commercial
domains, program planning
and controls, risk management,
integrated master plan /
integrated master schedule (IMP/
IMS), and program performance
management.
PRINCIPLES OF PERFORMANCE-BASED PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Principle at Niwot
Ridge LLC
Twitter I Website
59
L
ove your project, and your team will feel your passion for it. If
you dont believe in your project, your team will not follow up.
Leadership is about your passion to get the objectives; remember that
your project team is made up of people with feelings and family, so be
human and hear them.
Projects are about people: A sponsor is a person with a context, a customer is a
person with a context, teams are formed by people with a context. Understand
them, hear them, have empathy with them, and they will follow you. Reach their
hearts, and all will be easier.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
PROJECTS ARE ABOUT PEOPLE.
UNDERSTAND THE PEOPLE ON
YOUR PROJECT, AND YOUR
CHANCE OF SUCCESS
INCREASES.
Love your project,
and your team will feel
your passion for it.
JOSE MORO
Industrial engineer and project
management professional, Jose
Moro is an expert at helping
organizations to implement
project management and project
portfolio management solutions.
LOVE YOUR PROJECT, AND YOUR TEAM WILL, TOO
CEO of gedpro
b
60
Meet AtTask
AtTask is a cloud-based Enterprise Work Management solution that helps IT application development groups
and other enterprise teams not only manage their work, but also think smarter about the entire lifecycle of work.
It ofers a single source of truthone system for everything from ad hoc requests to long-term projects. AtTask
provides a space where team members can collaborate, prioritize, and quickly update the status of every task,
project, and issue. It also ofers a complete solutionpowerful enough for technical users, intuitive enough for
business stakeholders, and fexible enough to utilize Agile, Waterfall, or a mix of the two.
Overall, AtTask increases visibilityfrom request to reportingto eliminate the chaos of random work requests,
tedious status meetings, and endless email threads. And with visibility, project managers can lead.
To learn more about AtTask Enterprise Work Management,
please contact us at the following:
www.attask.com | + 1.866.441.0001 | + 44 (0)845 5083771

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